My roommate had a DVD copy of a Russian movie called Nochnoy Dozor, which means Night Watch. I knew very little about it other than it was part of a series. I figured it would have some kind of illumination of Russian entertainment; I thought I might find something unique that would make it different from American movies.
I knew it was a sci/fi action kind of movie that dealt with the struggle of good and evil, but I did not know much else about the plot or the setting. After watching the movie, I went and looked it up and found that it was based on the book written by Sergei Lukyanenko and it was part of a tetralogy. The premise for the series is that these supernatural humans called "others" fight for light or dark. The generals of the good and evil armies settled on a truce that prevented them from wiping eachother off the face of the earth. The the protectors of the truce guard each side. The guardians that make sure the light others follow the rules are called the Day Watch and the guardians that monitor the dark others are called the Night Watch.
The movie's plot was complex and moved forward at a good pace, and it ended with a huge cliffhanger. The confusing part concerning the movie and the book is that the sequel film is named for the second book Day Watch but it is the second half of the first book. The movie has world-wide fame and is supposed to be for Russia what The Matrix was for the US. The movie grossed highest in Russian history with $16.7 million in its native land. The movie also has been compared to the Lord of the Rings films.
The movie felt very similar to what someone might see in a film made in the US, but that just makes me think about the Russian Formalism, a type of literary criticism that believes that the nature of literature and story telling is to take familiar things and make them strange and new. The movie accomplished that for sure. Russia has spoken with great authority in the realm of art and the impact can be seen as I just stated. I believe the movie itself tries to convey the theme that people are good or evil by the choices they make and the actions that follow. Even though the movie takes place in Moscow, it does not lend itself to direct representation of Russian culture because the people run around in shadows avoiding normal people and life situations. However, it definately shows Russia off as a developed nation with similar values of other countries like it. All in all, the movie says great things for the Russian movie industry and has great literary significance.
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