The story is loosely based off of a Russian epic poem about a brave and blustery man named Ilya Muromets. He wields a magic sword and goes about performing good deeds and saving innocents. He is a very loud and proud sort of fellow who always says what's on his mind. This is probably the main reason the movie is so much fun. Just to hear him yell out insults and carry on in his bold way is a joy to behold.
There were a lot of wonderful fairy tale tropes in the film. The sword he used actually belonged to another hero named Svyatogor who had lived such a good life that he was allowed to die upon his horse and never fall to the ground. He was turned to stone to remain a monument of himself for eternity. How awesome is that?
There is also a wind demon known as Nightingale the Robber who was a lot of fun. Ilya had to best him early on in the film. The movie did a good job showing how evil and powerful this creature was. And they are correct in referring to him as a demon.
There is also a three-headed dragon... which I am sure they did their very best to animate. God bless them. It was the 50's and it was the Soviet Union. It was still cool though. I mean, they got it to breath fire and everything.
The main antagonist of the film is a Tugar named Kalin. Ilyad spends a good portion of the film dealing with him, but this is where things get a bit weird. Dealing with the demon was very quick and satisfying. But when dealing with the Tugars, Ilyad seems intent on employing some really complicated plans with many steps to them when it seems it would be easier to just fight him. Must be a Russian thing.
Either way, it was a lot of fun to watch. It is always neat to look into fairy tales from countries that don't normally get exhibited. Fairy tales comes from every single area of the world. There's a lot of them out there, and we can learn from all of them.
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NINETEEN fifty-nine. The recurring theme of a hero battling his way to the final boss, a dragon makes me wonder. That this movie made the adventure cute yet still adventurous is like old Disney at its best.
ReplyDeleteI liked it a lot. It was good despite its "oldness."
DeleteSound like a fun movie. I always like the blustery heroes, more so when they are "misogynist'. Cool that they kept to the fairy tale tropes.
ReplyDeleteHe was so much fun. I got used to hearing his voice as the film went on.
DeleteI have watched a few Russian films. In the ones I saw, the attitude tended to be quite grim. Still, there was a lot of enthusiasm in the production.
ReplyDeleteThey put a lot of belief in this one character, so it wasn't so bad as depicted in this movie.
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