[RUSSIAN REVIEWS] Тарас Бульба (Taras Bulba)

There is no need to bother Leni Riefenstahl and her Triumph des Willens to demonstrate how powerful propaganda can often be, but it's exactly in cases like hers that you often wonder what her legacy would have been, if ridden of all the political ramifications of (some of) her works. That is one of the reasons why today's Mainland Cinema is so vibrant and interesting, even in its most quintessential main melody form: we're often dealing with pretty obvious pieces of cinematic propaganda, works funded by the government and whose foremost purpose is to drive the masses into supporting a certain creed or philosophy. But for every insipid turd like 建国大业 (The Founding of a Republic), you get plenty of eclectic variations on this melody, works which do fulfill their "quota" of bleeding-heart national sentimentalism, but also manage to focus a large portion of their makers' efforts in building a cohesive, energetic cinematic product - just in the last few months, He Ping's 麦田 (Wheat), Sun Zhou's 秋喜 (Qiuxi) and the megahit 风声 (The Message). In light of its disarmingly over the top nationalism, I'm not entirely sure Vladimir Bortko's epic historical drama Тарас Бульба (Taras Bulba) qualifies for the job, but it's certainly an intriguing film.

We're dealing with one of the most acclaimed classics of romantic nationalism, Nikolai Gogol's Тарас Бульба (Taras Bulba), the main text of J. Lee Thompson's 1962 version with Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis, and also three other adaptations including a silent film by Aleksandr Drankov in 1909. And it's not so much this tale of a legendary Zaporozhian Cossack that arouses controversy, but the novel's rather peculiar gestation itself: there are two versions, an original manuscript written in 1835 and a revised, much more Russia-friendly 1842 version this film is based upon. This is certainly not the place to get into a long tirade about the current touchy diplomatic relationship between Ukraine and Russia, but you can imagine how that alone significantly shaped the acceptance of this film in both countries, even before the film was actually screened. The first bone of contention is the source itself: instead of using the original, more in tune with Ukrainian folklore and history, director Bortko (a Communist party member of Ukrainian descent himself) conveniently chose this czarist revision, which alters the ending (much more effectively so, if you ask me) and drenches the entire story in nationalist odes to the motherland, oozing with Orthodox sturm und drang. Which is another way of saying that Uncle Putin certainly enjoyed the spectacle on display.

Scathing reviews from Ukraine (and the exact opposite from Russian nationalists) were pretty much par for the course, almost solely judging the film on ideological issues and the aforementioned choice Bortko made, which in turn morphed everything they were seeing into vile garbage - a lot of the negativity directed at The Founding of a Republic was of the same kind, although the film did deserve all the animosity for its lack of quality. But even if devoid of some of its Ukrainian humor and gaining much more weight in the form of an unceasing serenade to Russian supremacy, Taras Bulba is not the infamous, gigantic flop the controversy it aroused would lead you to think. With a budget of over 500 million rubles (over $16 million) substantially funded by the Russian Ministry of Culture, Bortko's adaptation might have chosen the "wrong" source for Gogol fans, it might have further embellished a revision which already significantly smelled of ye good ole Soviet nostalgia, but if you're willing to forgive the incessant kool-aid, this is quality filmmaking. If anything, because it respects rule number one of historical dramas: getting the historical details right. I was no John Woo fan even before the 赤壁 (Red Cliff) series started, but the most evident aspect of this insanely successful and equally insipid duo was not their incredibly sumptuous sets and battles or its incredible arsenal of thespians, but the suspicion that Woo might have never even sniffed in a history book's direction - of course when you're dealing with historical fiction from the start, there's always an acceptable error margin, but the film got so many things wrong that it often took away from the experience. Taras Bulba is not only as faithful to its source as possible on a purely narrative level, but it also gets costumes, props and the setting (the Zaporozhian fortress replica is simply stunning) right, with perhaps the only major complaint being the fact that the characters speak straight Russian, and not a dialectical mix of Russian and Ukrainian like they should - but then we go back to the propaganda issue.

This thing just looks, sounds and feels right: battles are pretty matter of fact, following in some ways the Mainland Chinese TV historical drama canon - thousands of extras and the kind of lavish cinematography which reminds of Kurosawa, but no stylized shenanigans, just brutal warfare with little time for technique and archaic MMA contests; the storytelling might be severely influenced by its pro-Russian slant, particularly when it is time for some of our characters to heroically fight to their last breath, after which they spend a good 30 seconds extolling the greatness of the motherland before gloriously croaking. But, as cliched as it might be, this is epic storytelling 101, with strong (if a little one-dimensional) characters, good dramatic punch and a relentless flow which makes the over two hour running time pass like a breeze. And it's not all that surprising, considering Bortko's past, mostly spent on TV. In the last twenty years, the man has adapted two classics by Mikhail Bulgakov - Собачье сердце (Heart of a Dog) and Ма́стер и Маргари́та (The Master and Margarita) - and Dostoevsky's ИДІОТЪ (The Idiot), not to mention directing the excellent 1990 war miniseries Афганский излом (Afghan Breakdown), about the Soviet war in Afghanistan. He's certainly not a master stylist, but when it comes to faithfully adapting a literary source, he definitely displays talent - and his almost documentary-like approach to filming historical events is a much appreciated trait.

Again, the story is as classic as they get: Zaporizhian Cossack extraordinaire Taras Bulba (one of Ukraine's most beloved veteran actors, Bogdan Stupka, in a rugged, no BS tour-de-force) sees his two sons Andriy (Igor Petrenko) and Ostap return home from the Kiev Academy. Before momma can even greet her creatures, Ostap is already fighting with his father in true Cossack fashion, with a father-son hug at the end of many a scary stare and a prolonged confrontation. But while bonafide Cossack blood runs in Ostap's veins, Andriy seems not to be too concerned by such bleeding heart nationalism, exhibiting traits of an early adopter of the cosmopolitan creed - propensity he had already shown in Kiev, when he fell for a beautiful Polish noble (Polish model/actress Magdalena Mielcarz). Father and sons set out to the Zaporizhian sich (fortress), where after reuniting with other fellow Cossacks and consuming barrels of vodka, they join the violent clashes against the increasingly brutal oppression of the Rzeczpospolita, the feared Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Once Taras' troops reach the castle of Polish-occupied Dubno (western Ukraine), something peculiar happens: the woman Andriy had fallen for in Kiev turns out to be the daughter of Dubno's governor, and right as Taras' men besiege the fortress and plot to starve its inhabitants, Andriy's allegiance is severely questioned - well, not really, but it wouldn't sound too "heroic" to get on your knees and confess that you'd rather fornicate in a warm castle with a pretty blonde, rather than getting a spear in your kidney for the sake of the motherland, would it? The rest, as they say, is history. Kind of.

Admittedly, the first half takes its jolly time to get going, and the characters aren't really allowed to flex out their personalities or the reasons behind their actions - it's either passionate nationalists, spurious enemies, traitors or "collateral damage" - that is, anyone who gets his throat slit just to make numbers. But once the Shakespearean angst starts to pump, and the battles begin in full force, Taras Bulba transforms into the kind of old school epic which Hollywood doesn't really make anymore. Again, it's as far from being politically correct as possible, and its sanctimonious "Russia über alles" will annoy many a moviegoer, particularly if you're inclined to let political motivations influence how you see a film. And maybe approaching a film this way is a little too nonchalant in itself, but sometimes you'd like to believe that there's more to propaganda films than the inculcation of philosophies upon the masses. As long as you don't let the torrents of vodka, the flying limbs and severed heads, the sex, the angst and all the brutality blind you to the fact that it's just a well made, good old historical potboiler, you'll be just fine. Leni Riefenstahl it is definitely not, but sometimes the will to make a good film can triumph over the most coarse of propagandistic intents...

RATING: 7

Тарас Бульба (Taras Bulba)
Director: Владимир Бортко (Vladimir Bortko)
Screenplay: Владимир Бортко (Vladimir Bortko), Игорь Матюшин (Igor Mityushin)
Produced By: Central Partnership
Running Time: 127 Minutes
Release: 4/2/2009
CAST: Богдан Ступка (Bogdan Stupka), Игорь Петренко (Igor Petrenko), Владимир Вдовиченков (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), Magdalena Mielcarz, Любомирас Лауцявичус (Liubomiras Laucevicius)