FILM REVIEW OF 'GOING VERTICAL'
A BLOCKBUSTER BREAKS RECORDS
By Stephen Wilson
MOSCOW -- A recent Russian film, 'Going Vertical', launched
from Last December, about the Soviet Basketball
victory against the Americans in the Olympic
games of 1972, has proven an unprecedented
box office hit . In just less than a month it has
made an almost staggering 2 billion rubles.
Unfortunately the film has provoked embittered
controversy over its dubious depiction of
the major players' characters not to mention the
misleading performance of the players. Two
widows of the former team are even taking the
producer of the film to court.
Why has the film provoked so much controversy?
Perhaps because the film starts with the usual
absurd claim that ; 'The Film is based on real
events 'then goes on to show numerous invented
stories within stories with no relation to what
actually happened.
So what events is the film claiming to be based
on? The actual events of how the Soviet basketball team won against the United States at Munich is bizarre in itself ! It is such a great story that one wonders why on earth it needs either embellishing or over the top distortion in the first
place. At first, the American basketball team
presumed the match was over after they won by
one point ; 50 to 49. They even started jubilantly
celebrating. However, an indignant assistant
coach complained to the referee and judges that
the game was not finished as they had been
not granted : 'The Time out' they deserved.
Someone had made a poor job of the time
-keeping . So the judge ordered the game to
continue and during the last three seconds , to
the amazement and awe of all spectators the
Soviet team scored the winning points . They
won 51 to 50 ! The American coach and players
began angrily protesting that the Soviets should
not have been granted 'Time out' . While all this
arguing was going on the Soviet team retired
to their changing room and tensely waited for
the judges to make a final decision . The judge
decided to accept the Soviet team had won. But
the American basketball team have never
acknowledged they were defeated. They still
have not collected their silver medal!
The awarding game winning-points were scored by Ivan
Edeshkov passing the ball to Alexander Belov
who threw into net! it was all so sweepingly
sudden!
The film is directed by Anton Megerdichev
and the coach played by Vladimir Mashkov. As a
film ,which stretches over two hours, it never
has a dull moment. This in itself it quite a rare
achievement. There are a lot of moving and
amusing scenes which captivate an audience.
The basic plot is that the Soviet coach
proclaims that the Soviet team can beat the
American basketball team . "We have to instill
in all our players that they can do the impossible
even if you don't believe in the impossible' he
retorts to the defeatist assistant coach who
always 'puts him down' by accusing him of
being reckless , mad and too ambitious . The
coach Vladimir Garanzhin states he will only
agree to direct the team if, "We use a new
American methodology to beat the Americans."
But Garanzhin is facing many huge problems.
He needs to save enough money to pay for
an operation to help his disabled son who is
on a wheelchair. Not only this . Most of the Soviet
officials conspire to sabotage Garanzhin's efforts
to win the games by threatening to withdraw from
the games under a false pretext. The players
are even threatened with potential legal action
for smuggling illicit items into the country such as
a Bible and an enormous amount of clothes.
The American Basketball coach is depicted as
a ruthless man who directs his players to beat
up and injure the Soviet players. Not all the
American players agree and retort: "I'm not
a wrestler but a basketball player " and "I have
done enough boxing for today." When the Russian
players protest against foul play, the judge
answers : "You have to understand that yes, they
are playing dirty but they are not breaking the
rules." This is the same Judge who at an earlier
game sending off a Russian player with a tut tut
tut scolding : "basketball is a gentlemen's game."
Yet at the end of the film, this same judge
allows Russia 'Time out' allowing them to win the
match at the Olympics!
The film has a great cast, witty dialogue and
a lot of tense moments. It is a moving film.
A young student of mine called Roman, told me
"It was a great film . After the Soviet team won
during the last three seconds everyone in the
cinema applauded."
So why has the film provoked such controversy?
The poet Pushkin once stated: 'The tale is a lie'.
in this case, the film is a lie as it claims to be
based on real events. The widow of Alexander
Belov,{ He died of a rare heart disease in 1978,}
stated: "The only thing true about this film is
the last three seconds . All the rest of the film
is just false."
She stated that her late husband did not sleep around with other girls or suffer from any dizzy spells where he fainted during his time in the team. The Soviet doctors would
have disallowed him from playing as they had
very strict rules and were subject to many strict
medical tests. That the Soviet team would have
lost to a group of street youth over a bet also
appears ludicrous as "Sasha was a genius at
basketball." How the game was performed
on the film is highly misleading. The stunts
of leaping up in air and hurling the ball into the
air through the net was forbidden by the then
rules of basketball.
"Whoever wrote this script has never watched a game of basketball or knows anything about the game ," declared
basketball player Alexander Ovchinnikov.
She also stated that there was no woman's
Olympic basketball team in 1972 as it had not
been founded.
How has the film director Anton Megerdichev
responded to those allegations ? He claims that
if they told the story as it actually happened it
would be so dull nobody would want to watch
the film. In other words 'Truth is more boring
than fiction!' He certainly would not agree with
the old cliche that 'Truth is more fascinating than
reality'. To be fair, he is not the only director to
present a film purporting to be based on true
events but blatantly false. Daniel Ogen, a
storyteller, told me that: "Hollywood has produced
more false legends about the American Indians
than the Indians themselves".
Does it matter? Do cinema goers really believe
this game was 'based on real events?' Well,
some gullible Russian school children under the
age of 12 do tend to tell me they believe the
events portrayed in wartime films are true even
when I point out some inaccuracies. Many war
veterans don't even attend war films because they
are inaccurate to the point of absurdity.
So what might be a solution to at least avoid
troubled court cases? Why not use a bit of
honesty and declare at the beginning of the film:
'This film is very loosely based on events and
is not the literary truth.' But such an honest
confession in the eyes of many producers and
film directors risks profits. But it would be better
not to make the old misleading claim that:
This film is based on real events'. More often
'The film is a lie'.
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