When it comes to Russian (Soviet) films, the impression of a slightly older audience is probably stuck in the last century, and the younger audience is even more blank, as if all the movies about that mysterious country were made by Americans.
Like Russian literature, Russian cinema has an innate difference, and the 2019 film "Breaking Bad Munich" is definitely one of the best.
Based on true historical events, "Breaking Bad Munich" tells the story of the Soviet men's basketball team that defeated the U.S. men's basketball team at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
For Chinese audiences, there is not even an actor with a familiar face, but with a unique perspective and sophisticated production, it presents a wonderful movie feast.
"Kill Munich", which grossed 3 billion rubles in the history of the highest-grossing local film in Russia, is definitely a super sports film, but it does not adopt the traditional old meme of sports films to express the theme.
First of all, "Kill Munich" does not have the nationalist color rendering of the previous sports films, and even jokes about the fact that many political systems in the former Soviet Union restrict the development of sports, and there is no element of fighting national self-congratulation.
Closed training under the national system, meager prize money after winning the intercontinental championship, mandatory command of basketball teams at the national level, insulting inspections of the airport after the athletes return home...
Not only does the film fail to promote the glory of that era, but it even describes the sadness of politics dominating sports through various details.
Objectively speaking, realpolitik also did not promote the needs of the Soviet era.
However, for many Chinese audiences, there is a strange resonance, especially many environmental rendering scenes in the film, evoking a lot of memories of that special era, perhaps, the director of this film also has the emotion of nostalgia for the Soviet era, just through the Spring and Autumn brushwork to pay tribute to it.
Secondly, although "Kill Munich" is a typical genre film of "spawning monsters and upgrading", it does not adopt the traditional routine of regular heroes hanging all the way. All the layouts and renderings in the film are prepared for the climax of the final Soviet Union and the United States, but in the early stage, the Soviet national team was abused three times by the American college student team, and the members of the national team could not even play the basketball on the streets of the United States, and lost the specialty caviar they brought.
However, all this was intentional by the director. Taking the announcement at the press conference that it was going to defeat the King of america team as the breaking point, the follow-up was to lay a lot of defeats, creating a huge dilemma of an impossible task, and highlighting the magic of the last three seconds and the burning emotion after the victory.
Of course, "Kill Munich" is also the same as the traditional sports film, strong muscles, sweat, the whole film is full of male hormones.
However, the director injected the whole Soviet team to attend the wedding in Georgia, the team members lined up in the lush grassland, bathed in brilliant sunshine, behind the towering snowy mountains, a sense of hero assembly of sacredness and mission jumped on the paper, and even exceeded the burn of the final final, which can be described as a stroke of God.
"Kill Munich" abandons the conventional embodiment of patriotism and competitive spirit in sports films, but instead injects a warm footnote into basketball, so that the audience can see the brilliant brilliance of humanity after the bloody game.
The special background of the times gave the athletes a special political mission, but the players from the 15 republics did not start the game with full national enthusiasm, and they also lacked the spirit of unity and cooperation, and even the original intention of the head coach to coach the national team was to go abroad to treat his son's stubborn disease.
When he went to the United States to play a friendly match, the main player Sasha was found to have a heart attack and his life was in danger, and the coach handed over the money he had saved for his son's treatment to the doctor without hesitation; the star player Sergei in the team went from the initial maverick to the struggle to understand the team spirit; the Lithuanian player who originally wanted to escape from the Olympic Games finally gave up the material temptation to return to the field...
Especially after the final victory, all the players piled together the envelopes of prize money that were precious to them and handed them over to the coach to treat their son, and these emotional flashes are the real attraction of the film.
Despite the historic victory of the Soviet team, it was only a necessary stage for sports, and they were greeted by the next game.
The winner of the game is just waiting to be surpassed, but the emotional resonance can inspire us to move forward and benefit us for a lifetime.