Film
The creators of the film “The Time of the First” decided to take a story that has been lying on the surface for fifty years. Among other records with the prefix “first” we have the first man’s exit into outer space, which was connected with a number of difficulties – from the accelerated start-up times (otherwise we would have been overtaken by the Americans) to the blown-up space suit, because of Which Leonov physically could not climb into the ship, and the failure of the automation of Voskhod-2. Several abnormal situations in one flight, some of which could become fatal – in my opinion, it is worthy of an attempt to screen an important milestone in the exploration of outer space.
Main characters of the
The main characters in the historical flight were Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyaev. For the role of Belyaev without samples, Konstantin Khabensky was appointed, and Leonov was played by the producer of the project Yevgeny Mironov. If you take only the appearance of the actors, then they are similar.
If we talk about the manner of behavior, about speech, then Mironov is not only similar, but very similar to Leonov. Either the actor has the same manner of communication, or he tried very hard to get used to the role. While I was writing an article about the events in this film, I reviewed a lot of interviews of the cosmonaut. And here I believe that the same person is in front of me.
Khabensky plays Pavel Belyaev, the “oldest” pilot from the First Squad. At the time of enrollment, he was 34 years old, at the time of the flight – already almost 40. It’s interesting, but how realistic we will not know. The astronaut died in 1970 from peritonitis. It seems strange that a person who has been in space and landed on a manual control in the taiga dies from such a disease.
General Nikolai Kamanin, who was engaged in the selection of cosmonauts and their preparation, was played by Anatoly Kotenev. Kamanin proposed the first candidate to fly to space, Yuri Gagarin, spare – Herman Titov, and he was an active supporter of sending Valentina Tereshkova into orbit.
Alexander Novin played Evgeny Khrunov, Leonov’s substitute. The role in the film is not very large, but necessary for the development of the plot.
The families of cosmonauts may seem “cardboard”. But the overly sentimental young fathers shed a miserly man’s tear on the moments with Leonov’s daughter.
The main character was Sergey Pavlovich Korolev. The founder of practical cosmonautics was responsible for this flight. His role was played by Vladimir Ilyin, an old-school actor takes a lot of attention.
In one of the episodes of the film, after a meeting between Korolyov and Brezhnev, Sergei Pavlovich suffered a heart attack. On the advice of the doctor to rest, he said that he was not tired. Further this story line does not continue, but we know that less than a year after the launch, Sergei Pavlovich died of heart failure.
“The Time of the First” can be compared with the “Taming of the Fire” in 1972, in which Sergey Pavlovich Korolev became the prototype of the main character. This legendary person is represented here so brightly. Even at that time, the film was criticized for the excessive pathos and idealization of the characters. In this case, there is no idealization of Korolev, a living person is shown who is busy with his work.
The plot of the
After the frankly played “Gagarin” of 2013, which consisted mainly of pathos phrases, the characters of “The Time of the First” seem more alive. The atmosphere of the USSR is transmitted in a way that causes good nostalgia for those times. Please refrain from commenting on the topic “everything was bad”, everyone already knows that Korolev was in prison and worked in gold mines. Speech is still about the wonderful people who at that time did incredible things.
The film begins from the moment when, due to a mistake by the mechanic, Alexei Leonov has to show miracles of landing on an emergency aircraft. All this is seen by General Kamanin – the same one who worked with the selection of fighter pilots in the First Squad of Cosmonauts. “He’s crazy!” – “Give him to me, we just need crazy.” I marked this episode, because it is in the trailer, but it is shown in a different way – the viewer has the impression that the pilot just created an ugliness. In the film, he saved his life.
Next we are shown by Sergey Pavlovich Korolev. He is cheerful and at the same time tired and angry, he passes through the hangar to the shield, on which the plan of the first man’s escape to outer space is displayed. He crosses out 1967, 1966, and traces 1965. The timing has shifted, because top management demands it. The space race is in full swing, and the Americans are stepping on their heels
“Get 2 heroic corpses instead of two living heroes?” – says Korolev about the new formulation of the task.
Relations between Belyaev and Leonov, their craving for flights are shown through the moments of a parachute jump, after which the senior astronaut breaks his leg. This incident occurred during the preparation in 1961. So Paul was suspended for a year from training, but later returned to the system. In the trailer, we saw him training with a barbell in the rain.
Leonov refused to fly with another cosmonaut. After the movie, the question arises: why? Where did this friendship come from? While watching, you do not think about it, but just see your friends.
Most of the film is actually a flight. Here the script began to drastically depart from reality. Earlier I wrote that this is a ready-made plot, it can be taken without changes and can be screened with minimal changes. But before us is not a documentary, but a feature film, so you will not be able to avoid innovations that will create an atmosphere or reveal characters.
The screenwriters went to all serious and began to change events and their sequence. If you did not read Wikipedia before watching the movie, then you do not pay attention to it. During Leonov’s exit into outer space, the astronaut loses consciousness and remains silent, instead of calming the Earth. For the valve, the hero is not taken to enter the lock, but already in the airlock to turn around. Belyaev covers his colleague, informing him that the silence was due to communication problems.
Then – the failure of automation, manual guidance, landing in the Permian taiga in the snow, fire and waiting for salvation.
At the end we are shown a chronicle mixed with the film itself. The moment is very bright, it adds the “earthiness” of this story, brings us back to the fact that this is not just fiction writers.
Weightlessness
The film search suggests that for the spacewalk CGF studio has developed a system of augmented reality ViewGA. With her help, the director and operator saw on the screen the movements of the actor in the conditions of virtual space. This picture looks good.
A still from the movie
The Chronicle
For shooting within the ship used a full-size model of “Sunrise” with a system of cables. But the most interesting is the weightlessness inside the ship using the example of a pencil and a logbook. How realistic this is, I think, astronauts will be able to say. For a normal viewer, some inconsistencies will not be noticeable.
A shot from the filming
The Chronicle
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When they showed the moments from training in an airplane in weightlessness, it seemed to me that the actors really were sent to ride the IL-76. It turned out that everything was filmed in the studio.
Verdict
Immediately after leaving the room, I began to fill in the gaps in my own knowledge, which I received while preparing the last article – I made sure that Belyaev really broke his leg. If at least some of those who watched the film will search for information about Voskhod-2, then it was not in vain.
The film looks in one breath. There are several long moments in it, but they do not spoil the overall impression. The main advantage of this film is the production project of Yevgeny Mironov. This is not a way to make money, it’s not the five parts of Yolok. This is a screen version of an interesting and important story for him. And it’s not about Russia’s hurray-patriotism, but about pride in the whole of mankind and for the contribution that specific people have made to the exploration of outer space.
As a result, we have a film in which all the people participating in the project have invested their soul. But this is a subjective opinion. I encourage you to go to the movies and make your own, then write about it in the comments. And tell about all the advantages and disadvantages.
