What remained behind the scenes of the film "Only old men go to battle": why Leonid Bykov was forbidden to shoot

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Today film "Only old men go to battle" called one of the best films about the Great Patriotic War, and in the early 1970s. the cinematographic authorities did not appreciate the idea of director Leonid Bykov and forbade the filming of a film about pilots who looked "like singing clowns." Despite the fact that the plot was based on real events, the Ministry of Culture declared that it was implausible, and one of the audience's favorites was called "an actor with a dull face."

During the war, Leonid Bykov himself dreamed of becoming a pilot, but he was not taken to the flight school because of his small stature. He never lost interest in this profession and its representatives. And he decided to shoot his first film based on the recollections of Soviet pilots. The scenario was based on real facts told by participants in the military events. Almost all the heroes of the film had prototypes: for example, the image of the Maestro was inspired by the personality of the squadron commander, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Vitaly Popkov, whose squadron shot down a record number of enemy planes, and was also nicknamed "singing" for having gathered its own chorus.

Some episodes of the film may have seemed fictional, but in fact they were true. For example, Vitaly Popkov really did the low turns over the airfield in order to impress the girls (in the film, these "feats" are performed by Grasshopper). For this, the commander banned him from combat missions for a month and appointed him permanent duty at the airfield.

Even some of the nicknames of the pilots were real. Vitaly Popkov says: “In our squadron, Uzbek Morisayev was called a dark-haired woman. He was very fond of the song "Dark Moldavian" and every time he asked us to perform it. But many nicknames were not used in the film, as they were a little rude. For example, the flight commander Senior Lieutenant Sasha Pchelkin bore the nickname Firefighter - before the war he worked as a firefighter. One of the guys was called Wild, because once while hunting in civilian life, he mistakenly shot not wild, but domestic ducks. The pilot Nikolai Belyaev was called Lame - after being wounded in the leg, he limped. Nikolai Ignatov was nicknamed Crutch, I don't remember why. In the film, they used more euphonious nicknames."

Despite the fact that only a few characters were fictional (for example, Grasshopper), and the plot was based on real events, the film's script was rejected by the cinematic leadership for being far-fetched and "unheroic". The censors were outraged that Soviet pilots behave like "singing clowns", and Leonid Bykov was banned from shooting. But this did not stop the director. to prove to the leadership that he was right, he began performing on stage with a script reading in different cities of the USSR, and he was warmly welcomed everywhere. The combatants wrote letters to the Dovzhenko film studio, confirming that the plot was realistic and believable. And Bykov managed to get permission to start filming.

Problems arose with the approval of some of the actors. So, the management did not want to approve the comedian Alexei Smirnov for the role of Makarych's auto technician - they were used to seeing him in a completely different, non-heroic role, and declared that he was an "actor with a dull face."To which Bykov replied that he would not be able to shoot the film without him, since Smirnov himself went through the war and knew firsthand what he was going to play. The resistance was broken this time too.

But the troubles did not end there. When the picture was already ready, it was almost "hacked to death" in the Ministry of Culture. The prototype of Maestro Vitaly Popkov described it this way: “I was on duty in Kiev, called Lena Bykov, went with him to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, played the film. The minister persists: what kind of film is this, he says, people do not return from combat missions, they are dying, and they are singing live songs. And he sums it up: this was not and could not be at the front. I ask the minister: was he himself at the front? The official’s logic is amazing: he didn’t, he answers, but I know. And then I told the minister that I flew on one of two planes bought with the money of Utesov's jazz and donated to our regiment. And that Leonid Osipovich and his musicians came to our airfield, and we played together and sang together. Convinced. He was probably influenced not so much by my arguments as by the general's epaulettes and two heroic Stars … ".

Many front-line soldiers gave enthusiastic reviews about the film, perhaps that is why they decided to encourage its creators: the director was paid 200 rubles of the prize and was awarded the title of "stage director of the 1st category." This despite the fact that at the box office the film has collected an impressive amount - in the first year alone it was seen by about 45 million viewers.

Some of the actors made it into this film by fluke: how Sergei Ivanov got the role of Lieutenant Grasshopper