Anniversary of the film that inspired Putin

On August 19, 1968, the first two episodes of the four-part film "The Shield and the Sword" appeared on the screens of Soviet cinemas, and two weeks later the last two episodes were released. Director of the movie - Vladimir Basov.

After our president called this movie his favorite film, which inspired him to become a professional scout, hundreds, if not thousands, of articles appeared in various media, print and electronic, praising this film. Moreover, all these publications contained almost the same info: that the Soviet intelligence officer Alexander Svyatogorov became the prototype of the hero of Stanislav Lyubshin, how and why Oleg Yankovsky was chosen for the role of Henry Schwarzkopf, that the film was shot in Kaliningrad, Berlin, Dresden, Krakow, etc. etc. In a word, everything that is already written on Wikipedia. And also the fact that the film became the leader of the Soviet box office in 1968 - more than 68 million Soviet moviegoers watched the first two episodes.

And meanwhile, immediately after the release of the picture on the screens, a lot of critical arrows were fired at it. Someone was not satisfied with the fantastic nature of the plot: how can it be, in the heart of Berlin, almost under the nose of Hitler, a Soviet intelligence agent acts? Someone noted various technical roughnesses, such as improperly sewn fascist uniforms. And so on and so forth. Now it is absolutely understandable that many of the then party ideologists were enraged, firstly, that the Germans in the film were too smart. And some Germans - the same Henry Schwarzkopf - are also humane. But the most important thing is how can it be for the Homeland to begin with a "spring song of a starling"? Not with love for the native Communist Party, but "with the picture in your primer"?

But for us, then 10-12 year old boys, all this was deep ... unknown. We went to the film several times and waited for the release of the next episodes. And after the sessions, we sang "Spotlight fumbles carefully on the hill". And in our boyish conversations about girls, to the right place and the wrong place, tried to screw, the phrase "Skinny collarbones of Fraulein Angelica does not interest me at all."

As the readers of our channel could notice, we are always interested in, so to speak, an international assessment of those films that we, in accordance with our Methodology, have included in our Golden Thousand of the best film whenever anf whereever shot. So: in foreign film criticism there are zero references to this film. Which, however, is not surprising: according to Kinopoisk, the film was shown in cinemas only in the USSR. And if you take the IMDB data, then only in the USSR and in Hungary. As for the United States and its ilk, everything is clear: the Soviet film, and even about the role of the USSR in the victory over fascist Germany can't be allowed for release on the cinemas screens. But how to explain the absence of posters of this film in the cinemas of the countries of the then social camp? Moreover, filmmakers of the GDR and Poland took part in the creation of the film. In my opinion, one of two explanations is possible. First, apparently, in these countries the film was shown as a television series. Indeed, for some reason IMDB recorded it in television series. And the second possible explanation is that the release of the picture on the screens coincided with the Czechoslovak events of the 68th year. So, this film happened at the wrong time.

I just wrote that foreign film critics either didn’t see it, or, say, turned out to be “unmotivated” to write anything about a film that more than 68 millions moviegoers (or 28% of the population, including babies) watched in the cinemas of the largest cinema country literally in the first weeks. (For comparison: in the same 1968, Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece “2001: A Space Odyssey” was released on the screens of US cinemas. This film was watched by 43 million American moviegoers, or about 22%, for the first year. Try to count the number of reviews for this film in the Russian-language press! A lot of, indeed!) These circumstances give rise to doubt, if not the professionalism of foreign film critics, then at least the independence of their judgments.

But as soon as from the book "From the first person. Conversations with Vladimir Putin", written in the year 2000, it became known that it was thanks to this film that he wanted to become a scout, "The Shield and the Sword" became the object of close research by various political scientists, cultural experts and others. True, they do not disclose the results of their research in open sources. Although it was possible to find a mention of this film in the book of Rosalind Marsh, professor-Slavic of the University of Bath (Somerset, England) "Literature, History and Identity in Post-Soviet Russia, 1991-2006". In this study, she writes, however, combining “Shield and Sword” with “Seventeen Moments of Spring” that Soviet filmmakers set out to create the Soviet James Bond. As they say, where is Belov / Weiss with Isaev / Stirlitz, and where is James Bond?

However, there is some clue in the arguments of Rosalind Marsh. The fact is that the initial version of Vadim Kozhevnikov’s novel “The Shield and the Sword” suggested that the legendary Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel would be taken as the basis for the image of Alexander Belov. Even the name of the main character - A. Belov - should have been associated with the name Abel. But Abel categorically rejected the offer of cooperation, citing this refusal precisely because Belov was too much like Bond. And then the task was set before Kozhevnikov, Basov and Lyubshin to create the image of the Soviet intelligence officer, which was as different as possible from Agent 007. In my opinion, it turned out. Or I'm wrong? Anyway, Stanislav Lyubshin was recognized as the best actor of the year 1968 by readers of the magazine "Soviet Screen"?

As for the ratings of the film by modern moviegoers, the picture is as follows: 80% of users of IMDB and Kinopoisk gave this film ratings from 8 to 10, and every second user rated the film with the highest score - "ten". Taking this into account, FilmGourmand rated the film "The Shield and the Sword" at 8.115, making it 573rd in the Golden Thousand.