Firebird (2021)

As usual, an almost happy ending does not count. Heart wrenching to want to empathize, not cos it is fiction but knowing that its based on a true story will now not give the consolation to just shake off the despair that it was just reel, a movie, so all is good. It will haunt you knowing all that tragic pain happened for real in the past. Excellent movie.

Fmovies: I expected something better from this film, but despite its story, which is an indictment of the Soviet system and that era, it failed. The story is simple - Soviet pilot loves Soviet private soldier, and true love has impossible obstacles to surmount. Something here to get your teeth in, but what I saw was the failure of dentures to bite hard. As cinema it is formulaic and looked to me to be like a cross between that kind of British film made in the 1950's with 'heroes' and stereotyped Germans, and a weepie with all the cliches that films of the 'old' school starring Jane Wyman or Ingrid Berman. For a start, their first 'orgasmic' encounter half underwater has two jet planes flying noisily past, which was the typical tactic to not offend or be too explicit. There is a firework scene in David Lean's 'Summer Madness' which does the same thing with fireworks exploding in the sky. As for the acting department, the two leads did their best, but their Russian accents were a big, big mistake, as authentic languages are quite simply authentic, and giving the English language sounds fake. And at times strained and hard to understand. I watched it with subtitles. In one scene one of their superiors says, 'What about your plans?' and I heard 'What about your glans?' I wept with laughter. And then there was the use of music - generic as most films are at the moment except for the inevitable Tchaikovsky. Our heroes love Ballet with a big 'B' as all homosexuals have to love Tchaikovsky, and of course love to watch men in tights and women being either lifted up or allowed their solo dances. And then there is Stravinsky and 'Firebird'. I will give no spoilers concerning that, with one of our heroes with tears in his eyes. It is, as it were, a key moment, and as some cynics would say, there was not a dry eye in the house. I am trying to restrain myself from the heterosexual necessities of this story, but true though it is and had to be, my mind wandered back to 'Brokeback Mountain'. I concluded that this film, which is not gay in any sense of the word, was made to appeal to the widest of audiences, and hopefully for Russians to see and ponder over their prejudices past and present. If it does reach Russia I hope they dub it, and I never thought I would have to say that! So why a 6 for this? It is professional. The two male lovers have muscles to die for and faces to match and there is nothing like physical beauty on the screen to sway an audience in its direction. The rules of the game cannot be subverted by the ordinary or ugly. I hate that notion, but accept it, and looked upon the film as a variation of 'All That Heaven Allows' (remember Douglas Sirk, Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson?) It woefully works.

I watched this as an English language film. I'm not aware of another version. The problem is that this is an Estonian production and as most of the supporting cast is Russian, Estonian or German, their parts had to be dubbed into English. It makes the film totally unreal. Then the English lead spoke in a really weird clipped accent and I wondered if he was attempting to imitate a Russian accent and failing. I'm afraid this is ludicrous and did not provoke any emotion in me except for mirth.

I tried changing the audio track but there wasn't another one and the reason is obvious really. Each actor was saying his lines in his native language and it was being dubbed over post-production. The film might have been acceptable if the leads spoke Russian and were not dubbed even if the minor parts were dubbed into that language, but that's debatable. That would have meant one of the leads being replaced though. However, fewer of the supporting cast, that is the Russians amongst them, would have needed dubbing over. It would have been a bit more true to life.

This must have been a complete mess. There are Estonians, Germans, Brits, Russians acting in the film. No wonder they had to dub. But it's so cheap and unnecessary. Don't Russian actors exist? It's an Estonian film. A fair proportion of Estonians have Russian as a first language and even more speak it well. This is a complete failure of the production company.

Tom Prior makes an utterly unconvincing Russian grunt. He has a pretty face, manicured nails and a full head of hair in a fashionable style. His ample locks would have been shaved as a private in the Soviet army. A guy like him would have been subject to merciless hazing. There would have been no opportunities to sneak off on romantic assignations. It is just not vraisemblable.

Twenty minutes in, I gave up. This was never going to invoke in me the emotions it seems to have in others. I'm giving it two stars. Why? At least they didn't use a Lektor, lol.

Firebird fmovies. Excellent production documenting love in the repressive Soviet era, which although is an historical piece also sadly reflects today's Russian circumstances - many life takeaways here. Well filmed tense drama, filled with love, happiness and passion. Very enjoyable to watch and hope this film gets good distribution globally as its a quality well rounded movie.

Imagine, if you will, a tense time where if the Air Force discovered one was in a same sex relationship, it was grounds to be locked away in prison for five years. This came from Estonia must be a big deal for Eastern European countries, which are still super conservative when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights. But why was this shot in English then?

In the episode where Sergei develops a photos, we see a close-up of his hands with long nails and a manicure. Nobody told Tom Prior that it was impossible in the Soviet army? ;)