Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future (1973)

100 Best Science Fiction Movies, Slant Magazine List

#75. Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future (1973)

 

A short time after the fall of the USSR’s Evil Empire I got to watch a hilarious and eye-opening Documentary, “East Side Story” (1997) which was about the stupid things the Russian Film Industry had to endure during the terrible decades of the Communist Overlords (this seemed to apply more in Russia than the other Soviet States). And no, it wasn’t about Political Censorship, per-se, but a pettiness so extreme it frequently threatened to be de-facto outlawing of laughter and music.

 

Not all Soviet films were propagandist, most of the best weren’t, but all were under pressure to obey the precepts of “Socialist Realism” the Soviet’s Official Artistic Aesthetic starting in 1932. Cultural Ministers might, occasionally, allow something just slightly Politically bold, but getting them to finance sometime simple like a Comedy or Musical was like pulling teeth, and when they were finally released, those same Ministers were generally pretty publicly snotty about films that they could find no specific cause to suppress.

 

The sweet sounds of Russian Laughter and Music also faced problems in the West. Russian films did have an audience in the West, but on our side of the Iron Curtain, we were prejudiced against that Nation’s joy. Mirthless-to-Uber-bleak Directors like Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Elem Klimov was treated like a Gods here West, but how many Russian Comedies or Musicals can you name? (Personally, I can remember one from the days before the end of the Cold War, “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears” (1980)). We seemed to want to believe all Russians were dower and fatalistic, because that made us feel better about ourselves.

 

The thing is, the Russian people loved Comedies and Musicals, they ate up their own and the ones from the West that were allowed in, like candy. This particular film is a key example, a big domestic hit with over 60 million tickets sold, making it one of the top 20 most successful Soviet-Russian movies of all time.

 

Over-here it was unknown until after the final fall of Satanic Socialism and the Dawning of New a Golden Age of Economic Chaos and modestly-revised Authoritarianism. The original title was “Ivan Vasilievich Changes His Profession,” and the, “Back to the Future” part was for the Western release, indicating how long it took to get Capitalistic distribution.

 

Is it a masterpiece? No. It’s clumsy and dated, but on the other hand inventive and enthusiastic and had a few entertaining musical numbers including one that has singing horses. I’m not thrilled with Leonid Gaidai’s Direction, Gaidai was the top Comedy Director in Russia back-in-the-day, but lemme tell you, his was no Billy Wilder. I blame the Ministers of Culture again; clearly, they deliberately steered the really talented Directors into Joylessness. After 1975-or-so, audiences became bored with him despite him being a top Director over the prior decade.

 

On the other hand, the film does admirably aspire to our own Jerry Lewis’ work, and the Screenplay by Gaidai and Vladlen Bakhnov is excellent. The mounting complications are great fun and at least some of the cast, like Yuri Yakovlev in a dual role, are terrific. Clearly made-on-the-cheap, the Production Design is still quite good, and the on-location scenes, mostly filmed at the Rostov Kremlin, were even better. The Production Design was by Yu Formichov and Yevgeni, the Time Machine was built by prominent Sculptor Vyacheslav Pochechuev, and Cinematography was by Vitali Abramov and Sergei Poluyanov.

 

It’s based on a play by Mikhail Bulgakov (completed in 1936, but then censored until 1964 because it was mean to Sectary General Joseph Stalin, things that were no longer an issue when the film was made). Bulgakov’s most famous works are his short-story-cycle “A Young Doctor's Notebook” (completed in 1926) and the novel “The Master and the Margaretta (completed in 1939, censored until 1966, and even then, several chapters were removed).

 

The opening captions were probably meant to mock the Ministers of Culture, warning the Audience that the is both “Not Quite Realistic” and “Not Historically Accurate.”

 

The plot concerns Amateur Scientist Aleksandr 'Shurik' Timofeyev, (Alexsandr Demyanenko) in then contemporary Moscow who is building a Time Machine in his apartment. The Machine’s power demands places Shurik in conflict with a minor Party Official, someone we’d refer to as the Building Manager, Ivan Vasilievich (Yakovlev). These two argue while Shurik is testing the machine and are joined by a Thief, George (Leonid Kuavlev). A portal is opened to the reign of Czar Ivan the Terrible (Yakovlev again) and the contemporary Ivan and the Ivan the Terrible both get stuck on the wrong side of the Time Barrier, so both are forced to fill the other’s shoes. Contemporary Ivan is utter hopeless as Czar, continually almost-causing Cataclysmic Paradoxes while George, stuck with him, tries to restrain him because he’s hoping to get back to the Present. Meanwhile, Ivan the Terrible doesn’t know how to fulfil his Management duties now that he’s not allowed to execute anyone.

 

There are also some subplots, the main one concerns Shurik’s flaky and unfaithful wife Zinaida (Natalya Seleznyova). In a nod to the play’s original Author’s more famous works, there’s a house cat that appears a bit smarter that the humans.

 

Trailer:

Ivan Vasilyevich menyayet professiyu - sci-fi - 1973 - trailer - YouTube