Cinema
Only Old Men Are Going to Battle
В бій ідуть самі старики
Leonid Bykov · 1974
Synopsis
At the end of the summer of 1943, during the Battle of the Dnieper, the second squadron of a fighter regiment is called “singing”: its leader, Captain Titarenko, nicknamed Maestro, picks his recruits from those who can sing. His “old men” are not yet twenty; the reinforcements, out of accelerated schools, are younger still, and he keeps them on the ground as much as he can, amid combat, songs and first loves.
Context
Written towards the end of the sixties by Ievhen Onoprienko, Oleksandr Satsky and Bykov, the screenplay was at first judged “unheroic” by the Ukrainian cinema administration, and the support of former servicemen made it possible to shoot at the Dovzhenko studio in 1973. The finished film pleased the veteran pilots invited to a screening, but the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture shelved it; it took the intervention of Air Marshal Kutakhov and General Popkov to bring it out. It was presented at Barnaul on 2 June 1974, then in Moscow in August. The director himself plays the role of Titarenko.
Who it is for
A black-and-white war film of an hour and a half, with a lot of singing; a colourised version has existed since 2009. The “old men” of the title are twenty years old.
Prizes and reception
First prize at the Union festival in Baku and a special prize at Karlovy Vary in 1974; forty-four million viewers; sixteenth of the hundred best Ukrainian films.
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