Customer Reviews

Kidnapping Caucassian Style

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Typical of Gaidays' work, this film delivers pure, lighthearted fun. Even the bad guys get the laughs and the viewers sympathy (pity?). The script is loaded with good one liners, and even the ones that refer to Soviet era life situations are well understood by most westerners. The acting is easy and well done. Even the subtitles are pretty fine. It's more like slapstick with a plot, but if you really hate that type of comedy, stay away from Leonids' films. On the other hand, if this type of film appeals to you, you are in for a treat.

This movie is just so great. It's witty, funny, clever, and full of classic characters. Even my husband, who doesn't speak any Russian found this one hilariuos. The translation in the subtitles truly showed the movie's meaning. Although, it is hard to translate a truly Georgian Accent!

A warm and sunny Russian film by the very unknown (in the west)Leonid Gaidai, possibly Russia's greatest director of comedy. Very funny situations throughout and villains so comical you almost root for them. One of many Soviet non-propaganda films that should be better known in the west. Get it and laugh.

Just like Abott and Castello or The Three Stooges, the Shurick movies became a Russian classic. This one is of course is one of the top ones. I have watched this movie when I was about 8 years old back in Russia and still enjoy the style and acting today. The humor and the genre is phenominal. I highly recommend it to any movie viewer who enjoys something different, but yet great. What a wonderful timeless film.

The movie touched hearts of a few generations of the Russian-speaking movie goers, and is an unquestioned comedy classic.

Now that it is available on the DVD, the American viewers can see for themselves what the best of late-Soviet era comedy was all about.
On that note, let me summarize a few things that will perhaps clarify where to laugh (definitely not after i scream "SHOVEL!")

An anthropology student Shurik travels to a region known for its long standing hospitality and wine-culture - the Caucases mountains. On the way to his project area he meets a young komsomolka who turns out to be a niece of a driver to the Secretary of the local Raikomitet, a title equal to a Governor of the province. The aging once ferocious mountain lion likes the girl and proposes a fair exchange - a girl in return for the number of cattle and a Finnish (no less) refrigirator - a rare and much sought of item in those days. Well, after the girl refuses to go willingly - a kidnapping is planned with the help of the Magnificent Three - Biggs, Hooligan, and Coward played by Morgunov, Nikulin and Vitzin respectively.

Now every Russian knows how funny the 3 are. But let me try to single out WHY they seem funny to us. Being something akin to the 3 Stooges, the Crooks show 3 types that were peculiar in the Soviet Union's street culture, or perhaps even a prison system. The Biggs played by Morgunov is a fat strong guy with the leadership qualities - kind of "vor v zakone" - if he ever falls, he falls really loud. Hooligan played by the best ever - Yuri Nikulin is a type representing a more minor crook, a thief with a lot of wit, who is however often times numbed out by his love for drinking. And finally Coward played by Vitzin - a universally excepted expert of the Soviet comedy, a whining petty pocket thief, who survives solely on whining and his wit which goes as far as fooling his own buddies with a perfectly innocent face.

The "Secretary" played by Etush displays typical machismo qualities like a love of wine and women, devilish eyebrows, and a perfectly Caucasian accent, da?! "Komsomolka" played by the lovely sex-idol Natalia Varley is a brave camper-girl who loves to dance and sing, and twist. Finally the "Driver" played by Mkrtchan (an Armenian star actor) is a ruffian who has infinite love for money and all things material, a "typical" inhabitant of the region. And FINALLY the protagonist Shurik - is an archetypical Russian Ivanushka Durachok - a dupe, who is nevertheless brave, intelligent, yet timid - a model for many of us.

This is a very funny Soviet movie! It's about the kind, but very naive Shurik, he comes to the Caucases looking for folklore, perhaps in Georgia (USSR), and falls in love with the beautiful and very atheltic Nina. But a local orders her to be kidnapped, bride kidnapping that is, with the help of three morons (Sort of like the Soviet versions of the Three Stugges) and her uncle, they manipulate Shurik to help them kidnap her, saying it's an old and legal tradition! After the dirty deed is done, he comes to find out there is no such legal tradition, well it's technically an old Georigan tradition, but it's still illegal. Anyways, he must save Nina and set things right.

Love this film, it will make you laugh!

This is a hilarious, classic, Soviet-era slapstick. My teenage sons, who know very little Russian, thoroughly enjoyed it. Besides the entertaining story line, the wonderful comic acting and directing, Causasian Captive is full of Shurik's specialty - amusing, ethnographic oddities. The director decided not to place the movie in a specific Caucasian nation such as Georgia, Armenia or Azerbaijan, but the film abounds in Caucasian cultural stereotypes such as the long-winded toast, the shish-kebab proferring hospitality, the Allah-invoking mountain Muslim, and yes, the bride-selling "traditionalist". These are contrasted with the Soviet ideals of secularism, collectivism and women's independence. Sometimes the sets are very hokey, but the music and acting are wonderful and Yuri Nikulin is always amazing to watch. Very enjoyable!

An old fashioned comedy, not sure if deliberate or just primitive. Very antiquated cinematic techniques. The amusement seemed unintentional and awkward, vaudeville-like. Poor scene transitions