Film Review

FILM REVIEW

KALASHNIKOV  {2020}

 

Directed by Konstantin Buslova

Review by Stephen Wilson

 

            Yurli Borsivo plays Mikhail Kalashnikov,  Olga Lerman plays Katya Moiseyeva, Artur Smolyani plays Engineer Captain Lyutyy and Eldar Kalmalin plays Inventor Alexandr

Zuytsev and Sergei Brodov plays a leading general.

 

"I watched the film Kalashnikov on Russian television. You should watch it. It is a nice movie. It is not too long, it's light and good to watch. It tells how a simple man who has little school education has left school at the 7th grade and without knowledge of technical drawing goes on to invent the A.K. 47 automatic. He was a very lucky man!" advised my student Yevgeni who evidently enjoyed the film. 

It was certainly the case Kalashnikov was a lucky man. The stars were on his side. He was born from an exiled Kulak family {an enemy of the people}, luckily managed to illegally escape from his settlement with false papers {a crime which he could have been executed for if the authorities had found out}, luckily survived a tank battle in 1941 where he was badly injured, lucky to find a supportive wife who helped him with the technical drawing of his design and and lucky to finally attain acceptance for his proposed guns. But he did not achieve this without all kinds of trials and tribulations. And those trials are the center of the drama of this film.

 

The A.K. 47 Kalashnikov remains one of the most legendary and proficient automatic weapons which for all its imperfections, surpasses American weapons such as the M14 and M16 in quality as well as practical use. Even the historian Max Hastings is forced to grudgingly admit the gun's merits. He writes in his book Vietnam, {2018} 'The A.K- 47 's inaccuracy was unimportant. It enabled guerrillas to deliver heavy fire, usually semi-automatic or in short bursts. Approaching 100 million copies have been manufactured since 1947 in factories throughout the communist world. The Kalashnikov has proved the most influential firearm in history, the revolutionary's weapon of choice from Angola to the Philippines, instantly recognizable by its banana- shaped magazine.' [Page 351 , Vietnam, An Epic History of a Tragic War, 2018, by Max Hastings.}

 

It is hardly surprising that the life itself of Mikhail Kalashnikov would go on to be dramatized in a recent film by the director who had actually met Kalashnikov and stated he was fascinated by the complexity of the man. The film Kalashnikov covers events from the early life of the inventor up to his success in making the ultimate breakthrough in winning acceptance for his model in 1947. At the beginning of the film we see flashbacks of scenes in his childhood where he is either inventing and testing toy guns on the farm and scenes at the beginning of the war where as a Senior sergeant and tankist he is badly wounded and being driven back in a truck which breaks down. He and the driver are forced to go to a farm to get a horse to pull them and are ambushed by Germans. In the firefight with the Germans the driver's automatic gun jams and the Germans wound him. Kalashnikov witnesses first hand the defects of this weapon and after hearing the complaints of many soldiers about their weapons decides to invent a much superior weapon which will help them. The Kalashnikov who emerges from this film is very honest, innocent and direct with his words. When people ask him what he does he openly tells them, "I invent things. I have invented different things. I want to invent a new weapon which will help soldiers." 

However, often his claims to be an inventor of guns is met with misunderstanding, ridicule and mockery. At times his superiors tell him, "We don't need such testing or experiments with weapons. Please leave us". However, after many appeals and pleading, he receives permission to work on his gun and gets the support of friendly and endearing workers who do the technical work to assist him. Some acutely perceptive officers understand that they have a genius on their hands. He is sent to the Shchuruv Arms Testing facility where he is approved to take part in a national arms design competition. There he is granted scope to invent and test his model gun. He makes the acquaintance of an assistant designer who helps him with the technical drawing involved in designing the weapon. A romantic subplot unfolds where a naive Kalashnikov often ineptly woos his beloved in clumsy dance scenes and he attempts to surreptitiously glance at her through her window like a shy school boy.

 

Kalashnikov doesn't have an easy time. A lot of people don't believe in him, he is often imprisoned and in one over the top scene a drunken officer takes him deep into a forest and almost murders him. When he tries to test his own weapon without permission and he is detained and arrested for insubordination. Despite many setbacks and failing to win the competition, some people offer kind words of encouragement to him. His commander Captain Lyutyy tells him, "I believe that you can make a great gun. A lot of don't believe in you but I do. You have to keep believing in yourself." His wife tells him, "I believe you are the best arms designer in the Soviet Union". 

Finally, the weapon is brought to General Vasily Degtyaryov who  expresses his frank respect for Kalashnikov and allows the weapon to undergo tough testing by being immersed in water and sand. And the film ends happily with Kalashnikov's weapon being approved for manufacture and Kalashnikov winning applause, recognition and a wife into the bargain. At times the film reminds you of a Russian fairy tale.

 

The film is worth watching because of the brilliant acting, beautifully shot scenes, deft dialogue and fast moving drama which manages to avoid the old cliches. But it should be pointed out that Kalashnikov was no uneducated country bumpkin. Though his formal school education may seem rudimentary the man excelled in his own special kind of self-education. Kalashnikov wrote poetry all his life and was the author of many books. He was a devoted believer in the Orthodox church and he felt deep remorse at having invented a gun which killed people. He stated in a letter, 'I keep having the same unresolved question, if my rifle claims people's lives then can it be that I as  a Christian and an Orthodox believer was to blame for their deaths?'

 

The Patriarch Kirill answered that to design a weapon for  a defensive role in protecting your country from invasion and not an offensive purpose was acceptable to the church. What emerges from the early scenes of the film is that Kalashnikov invented his gun to save the lives of his comrades. He did not want to witness any more harrowing scenes where soldiers were needlessly wounded or killed through inept and unworkable weaponry. For many American soldiers claimed that in Vietnam many of their comrades were killed while they were fixing guns that had jammed during combat. At the end of the day, a soldier's best friend is still more often his gun.