I was excited to see this movie and it was entertaining. Fans of the show Vikings will appreciate the gritty, authentic characterizations of the Cossacks with their fierce personas, bushy mustaches and shaved forelocks. The Cossacks were a collection of hard-living freebooters, many criminal refugees, who fled to the wilds of the Ukraine from all parts of Russia to live independently. Riding in packs with disregard for life and limb, they were the Christian counterpart to the mounted Tartar hordes they often sparred with, like two Medieval motorcycle gangs.
Unfortunately the film ultimately degenerates into an appalling propaganda piece with a slew of nobly dying Cossacks declaring their love for Mother Russia and angry heartfelt wishes that Russia and its brand of Orthodox Christianity will someday conquer the world. If this was a Muslim film expressing the same type of sentiments people would be screaming for drones to take action on the filmmakers.
Even creepier, several of the dying declarations and other venomous speeches target Poland - and although the Poles are the enemies of the Cossack horde in the film, the message is clearly intended to transcend the time period, with expressed wishes that "the Polacks" will be sorry someday. In today's political climate, the film is undoubtedly a cry to arms for Putin's burgeoning reactionary groupies, who publicly dream of restoring Russia's Soviet era empire.
The film spends way too much time on these propaganda points and far too little on story development. The love story so critical to the storyline is choppy and unconvincing, with the Cossack traitor allowed to enter the Polish princess's boudoir and have his way with her while her family and retainers blithely ignore his entrance. While the Medieval Poles were reputedly more sexually liberated than their European neighbors, it is unthinkable that a traitorous knight- in-training would be allowed such liberties with a noble. On top of that, the young Cossack was enthusiastically assailing the castle walls just a day before. (The relationship in the Tony Curtis version of this story was much more ably developed.)
If the movie ended about three-quarters of the way in, the bits of propaganda scattered throughout might pass for authentic dialog - as would the "hero" Taras' scorn for the Jewish merchant, portrayed as a groveling money grubber. But just when you're sure the movie is over, the battle is extended and the litany of cornball dying words is unleashed... to go on and on and on...
With the recent events in the Ukraine over disputed territory, one can only wonder whose side the old independent Cossacks would take today. "Mother Russia" or a free Ukraine?
Unfortunately the film ultimately degenerates into an appalling propaganda piece with a slew of nobly dying Cossacks declaring their love for Mother Russia and angry heartfelt wishes that Russia and its brand of Orthodox Christianity will someday conquer the world. If this was a Muslim film expressing the same type of sentiments people would be screaming for drones to take action on the filmmakers.
Even creepier, several of the dying declarations and other venomous speeches target Poland - and although the Poles are the enemies of the Cossack horde in the film, the message is clearly intended to transcend the time period, with expressed wishes that "the Polacks" will be sorry someday. In today's political climate, the film is undoubtedly a cry to arms for Putin's burgeoning reactionary groupies, who publicly dream of restoring Russia's Soviet era empire.
The film spends way too much time on these propaganda points and far too little on story development. The love story so critical to the storyline is choppy and unconvincing, with the Cossack traitor allowed to enter the Polish princess's boudoir and have his way with her while her family and retainers blithely ignore his entrance. While the Medieval Poles were reputedly more sexually liberated than their European neighbors, it is unthinkable that a traitorous knight- in-training would be allowed such liberties with a noble. On top of that, the young Cossack was enthusiastically assailing the castle walls just a day before. (The relationship in the Tony Curtis version of this story was much more ably developed.)
If the movie ended about three-quarters of the way in, the bits of propaganda scattered throughout might pass for authentic dialog - as would the "hero" Taras' scorn for the Jewish merchant, portrayed as a groveling money grubber. But just when you're sure the movie is over, the battle is extended and the litany of cornball dying words is unleashed... to go on and on and on...
With the recent events in the Ukraine over disputed territory, one can only wonder whose side the old independent Cossacks would take today. "Mother Russia" or a free Ukraine?