My review of the film

I don't live in Russia but speak the language and saw the film last week. I was born in the United States to Russian immigrants, I was born 2 years after they arrived in the states in the 70's. I grew up around Russian culture and did not speak any English until I began attending school in the states. So I never knew of Vysotsky when he was alive, I do not know what it was like in Russia aside from my knowledge from oral histories passed down to me from my family. To be honest Vysotsky was never played in my home as a child, I did not know of him until much later in my teens after accidently stumbling upon him. Then as I researched him, it blew my mind as to why almost no one in America knew of this great man. Though he did come to the United States in 1976 and played for major celebrities (Liza Minelli, Robert De Niro, etc) and was profiled on 60 minutes which was the mecca of television journalism at the time. So I was very excited to see this film, after seeing countless documentaries, finally a film version of the great Vysotsky...


As far as the good about the film, whoever it may be who portrayed the great Russian Bard did a phenomenal job. You never feel like you are watching an actor but the man himself. The make up was fantastic, sure at certain points it can be seen that it's make up but it does not detract from the suspension of belief.

The cinematography was phenomenal, it does not feel any less than a major motion picture release by Hollywood. The colors are vibrant, the scenary is breathtaking, it has the perfect feel of the time period. The supporting cast is decent, the standout performance comes from the KGB agent in charge of pursuing Vysotsky, there are a couple of specific breath taking scenes between the two, yet they do not take place with the two of them together. One scene is while Vysotsky is speaking to his lover in bed and the KGB agent listens in via wiretapping devices. The second scene is when he learns of Vysotsky's "death".

The bad is not much but crucial in the sense that if you are expecting to learn about the man himself, this is not the movie for you. The movie takes place over the course of events surrounding Vysotsky's clinical death which took place a year to the day before his death on July 25th 1980. On July 25th, 1979 a battered Vysotsky was clinically dead for several minutes but was eventually revived and this film takes place around the days surrounding this event.

To appreciate the film, you already have to have a solid knowledge base of Vysotsky. This film does not touch much if at all on what the man trully meant to the public, his acting career, his stage work, his poetry, etc. So unless you know the immense struggles he faced it is very difficult to appreciate it.

The film is not great but it's worth a watch, it's more concerned with the faults of the man than it should be. It fails in concerning itself with the genius and the struggle of the man not with his personal demons but with his majestic abilities to convey with words what his countrymen felt.

I also watched some interviews with Nikita Vysotsky (the son of Vladimir) who was involved in the project and he has respect for his father but it is clear from how he speaks about him that their relationship was not a good one, so I don't know how much that played in his input on what we see on the screen.

The greatness of Vysotsky, not himself personally but of his phenomenon is that I cannot think of any other similar person in the history of mankind in this sense; Vysotsky appeared in very few films, his recordings were never released during his lifetime on any record label. The state did all it could to block him from the people, only 3 of his poems were officially published in his lifetime. Yet millions of people knew every lyric to his songs, knew his poetry and protected their idol like a g-d. This is where the film misses for me big time, as it does nothing to convey this unique phenomenon.