Ruslan and Ludmila
Today's selection is a Russian fantasy movie titled Ruslan and Ludmila.
Valeri Kozinets as Ruslan
Natalya Petrova as Lyudmila
Vladimir Fyodorov as Chernomor the Wizard
Mariya Kapnist as Naina the Witch
Andrei Abrikosov as Knyaz Vladimir
Igor Yasulovich as Finn
Vyacheslav Nevinnyy as Farlaf
Oleg Mokshantsev as Rogdai
Ruslan Akhmetov as Ratmir
👀 Stream on CONTv; Fandor; Fawesome; Tubi; Amazon Prime Streaming; Hoopla (through your local library
💲 Buy the DVD on Amazon
🎬 There is no trailer for this movie, but there is a small clip on YouTube
🍅 7.1/10 on IMDb; 71% on Rotten Tomatoes; 3.6/5 on Letterboxd
This 1972 Russian Fantasy epic is based on a poem from 1820 by Alexander Pushkin. It is the last film by director Aleksandr Ptushko, who wrote some of the film's script as well as directed it. The poetic dialog was written by Samuil Bolotin.
When I say epic. I mean EPIC. Wow, was this movie fascinating. It was colorful and weird, full of strange magic and odd characters. The story follows the main character Ruslan who is a hero of Kiev. He recently saved the Kingdom of Kiev from the Pechenegs who seem like some sort of fantasy Mongol tribe, and after doing a quick Google search, I discovered that they were a "semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia who spoke the Pecheneg language. In the 9th and 10th centuries. they controlled much of the steppes of southeast Europe and the Crimean Peninsula. In the 9th century, they began a period of war against the Rus', and for more than two centuries launched raids into the lands of the Rus', which sometimes escalated into full-scale wars." (Wikipedia) So, points to Pushkin for using something out of history in his fantasy epic.
When the film opens, it begins with the beautiful, young, Ludmila, the daughter of Prince Vladimir of Kiev, about to marry the great hero Ruslan. Everybody is having a great time, enjoying the celebration, except for three of Ruslan's rivals: Rogdai, Farlaf, and Ratmir. But regardless of the glowering faces and huffing and puffing over their clear adoration of Ludmila, the happy pair escape to the privacy of their new life together.
In their bridal suite, Ruslan is making moony eyes at Ludmila, who is just moving around the room, sweeping from side to side, looking ethereal. And then out of nowhere, some bright lights appear and a strange wind blows up, grabbing a hold of Ludmila and sweeping her out of the room and into nothingness. There was no real reason for this as far as I could see. No one at the party beforehand seemed exhibited any magical powers and there was nothing showing any of Ruslan's rivals having any contact with a magical being, so why the lights and wind and kidnapping of Ludmila? Whatever the reason was, this is what sets the story into motion. With these kinds of fairy tales, the princess getting kidnapped, the hero having to rescue her and make his way through bunches of seemingly impossible tasks, have been around for, possibly, centuries, but the best example that I can think of is the King Arthur saga. So many of the stories involve the hero going on some sort of quest, be it rescuing someone or going after a great treasure. Many of the 1970s-80s fantasy movies also follow this particular trope. Which, don't get me wrong, is great. It's the basis of most of the D&D games I played in or ran. So, yeah...it works.
Anyway, Ruslan has to now tell Prince Vladimir that his daughter had been magically whisked away. He does and guess what? The Prince blames him for it. I couldn't figure this out. For so many of these stories, the hero would normally just tell the Prince, King or whatever, that he is ready to make the dangerous journey to rescue the kidnapped princess, daughter, or whatever. Instead, in this story, the hero is blamed for it. There was nothing that happened beforehand that would lead anyone to assume that Ruslan was to blame for the kidnapping, so why was he blamed. Unfortunately, we will never know. Instead, after blaming Ruslan for not protecting her well enough, he offers he hand to anyone that can bring her back. *blink, blink* Weren't they already married? Can he really just offer her to someone else as a new bride? Ok, so they didn't actually have time to consummate their marriage as she was snatched by flashy lights, but still, they were married. Now, this could be something as was the case in a lot of Middle Ages European marriages where it could be annulled by the church if the marriage hadn't been consummated. But even with this, a midwife, or at least another woman had to be there to check and make sure that nothing had happened, physically, between them. It's weird to me, but then again this particular story was written in the 1820s, and times were vastly different.
Ruslan and his rivals set out on their journey, all seeming to go in different directions. It isn't noted as to why they go the ways that they do. In fact, it isn't know at this point who took her and where she is. But Ruslan is the first to get that information. He encounters a hermit named Finn, who alludes to the fact that Ludmila was kidnapped by a sorcerer named Chernomor. He also, for no real reason other than to introduce another character, gives our hero the story of his life. Finn tells us that he fell in love with the beautiful Naina, but she cared nothing for him. To gain her affection, he turned to sorcery, but that took him 40 years to learn the spell and by that time both of them were old and unattractive (Wikipedia's words, not mine). When Finn sees her as her older self, he decides he no longer has any interest in her, so now she becomes his rival. .
You would think at this point in the story, since Finn knows where Ludmila is, he would offer some sort of assistance in the form of magic to help our hero find her. But, he does not. Instead, he just sends Ruslan on his way. I know that in a lot of these heroic quest stories, it is important that the hero finds his own way and solves the problems himself, rescuing the princess and defeating the evil with his own brains and strength. Therefore, I assume that this is the reason why Finn doesn't offer any help.
Ruslan heads off on his way, leaving Finn in his weird little rock hovel. A little while later, he encounters Rogdai. Now at this point, I want to deviate from the story a little and add something here about the three rivals - they are basically Disney villains. Rogdai is kind of like Jafar from Aladdin, tall and evil looking with the dark hair and eyebrows and the very forward personality; Ratmir is very similar to Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, acting kind of like God's gift to women with his smooth skin and good looks; while, Farlaf reminds me a lot of the father in Aladdin, chubby and mirthful, yet scared of everything around him and bumbling in his nature.
It's a this point that Rogdai is removed from the picture in a rather unspectacular battle on a cliff. He and Ruslan struggle while both still on horseback. I don't recall either of them drawing any sort of weapon. If they did, it was lost amongst the shots of the horses struggling against them struggling with each other. Ruslan dismounts Rogdai and he falls to his death off the cliff and into the waters of the Dnieper River (Wikipedia) below. This scene is a little odd, as it doesn't really look like the fall is that far and it also doesn't appear to be a rocky water landing, nor is it rapids, so it would seem that Rogdai could have just swam to shore, but then again, if he did survive that would be another character to return later and cause more issues, so instead, he's out of the way.
While all of this is going on, you may be wondering what has happened to Ludmila. Well, you questions will now be answered. Ludmila is being held in Chernomor's palace with a a very weird, fever dream of a place. There are all kinds of parrots hanging around in her room and weird women in veils racing to and fro, dropping clothes on top of her that magically envelope her body. When she realizes all of this, she freaks out some, running around trying to find a way out, which, yeah, makes sense. But after a little bit, she instead starts to explore, roaming around through rooms of what appear to be underground coral trees, tinkling crystals, a glass gazebo, and all kinds of other really visually beautiful places.
The locations in his palace are a direct opposite of his appearance. He is a dwarf, for lack of a better word, with an insanely long beard. His beard is so long that he has to have several of his lackeys carry it around in front of him. It's whacky. He doesn't really try to hide his appearance at any point from Ludmila. She doesn't have any interest in him, but that doesn't keep him from trying. He uses his magic to make a variety of foods appear to her, floating around her so that she can choose what looks the best to her. At first she isn't interested, pushing the floating food away, but finally she chooses something to snack upon. But at no point, is she freaked out about this floating food. She acts like it is totally normal.
Her trials of being in the palace go on for a while, with her exploring and finding different places to search out until she finally comes back to her the room where she started at. As she's standing in front of the mirror, she notices a green cap on the mirror, which is Chernomor that flew off his hear earlier and landed neatly on the mirror. She puts it on her head and quickly learns that it is a Cap of Invisibility. She uses this cap to evade him for a while. This gives her a break from her imprisonment, giving Chernomor and his guards a run for their money.
While this is happening, Ruslan encounter a giant sleeping head on a battlefield. This head tells him a story about how his brother Chernomor severed his head one night while he slept. I had a hard time trying to figure out what the actual reason for this was. They seemed to get along well and had no real issues with the relationship, but for some reason, Chernomor relieved his head from his body, leaving him cursed to guard a magical sword. A sword, which is huge and was his beforehand, but now the talking, magical head hands ownership over to Ruslan. With this, he urges him to use it to take down Chernomor, also telling him that all of the evil sorcerer's power resides in his beard.
And that was the END OF PART 1!!
I was over an hour into this movie at this point and still had about an hour and a half to go, which was funny cause Wikipedia showed that the run time for the entire movie was 85 minutes. No. No, it was not. I didn't realize just how long this movie was, but I was invested.
Part Two of the movie starts with Ruslan continuing his journey faces a variety of traps set by Chernomor and Naina. One of the traps is a tiger that Naina has enchanted to pretend to attack her so that Ruslan has to save her. There are nymphs dancing around with Naina disguised as Ludmila. But none of these traps can actually keep him from continuing his journey.
Chernomor uses this same idea on Ludmila, tricking her into believing that he is our hero, wounded and wandering lost through the palace. He finally encounters Ludmila, dropping down to his knees. She falls for this rather easily, which gives Chernomor a chance to cast a sleeping spell on her. But, not just that - he also puts the invisibility cap on her to hide her as well as a magical net. Now, I am not sure if the net is what put her to sleep or if it was his own magic. That was a little confusing, but I suppose, in the end, that isn't the point.
Despite all of the traps set for Ruslan by the two sorcerers, he makes it to Chernomor's palace. They have a confrontation outside of the palace on a cliff top. Ruslan snags a hold of the dwarf's beard, which prompt him to fly away, dragging Ruslan behind him. There is a whole dialog between them, that I can't even remember what it was, it was so bizarre. But at some point during this conversation and flying around on a beard, Ruslan gets him to land, which, then using the magic sword that he had acquired from the severed head of the giant, he slices off Chernomor's beard. The sorcerer screams and rolls around on the ground for a while, but Ruslan grabs a hold of him and shoves him in a bag, tossing that bag onto the back of his horse.
Now that Chernomor is stripped of his powers, Ruslan is able to locate the sleeping Ludmila, who does not wake up even though the sorcerer's powers are gone. I never really understood this part as it is usually assumed that when a magical being loses its powers, whoever or whatever had been under the spell, should wake up. But in this case, no, she stays sleeping.
Somewhere in here, the story shifts to Ratmir, who by this point, I had, honestly, kind of forgotten about. He wasn't really in the picture much at all in the beginning other than being at the wedding celebration. He arrives at a castle, which is attended by women, and women alone. One of these women, dressed plainly, greets him and convinces him to enter the palace. When we next see him, he is wearing a silvery outfit, sitting on a chair that could be a throne of some sort, holding a cup of wine or some such. Around him are many dancing women, in a variety of belly dancing looking outfits, all dancing rather seductively. He watches them, looking bored out of his mind. During this entire scene, I could not help but think of the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where Sir Galahad gets pulled into the castle by all of the pretty women, especially the part where one of the women shouts, "And now for the oral sex!" I have been ruined.
Anyway, as it turns out, Ratmir has no interest in any of the dancing women, who are all rather annoyed and bemused looking when the first woman he encountered out front comes in to bring food and drink to the table. He pushes toward her and it's clearly love at first sight. We leave him here to have a good time, while we return to the story of Farlaf, who'd also been kinda tucked to the side.
Farlaf is apparently at his home - with his WIFE! and children. Now, why was this man, the chubby, jovial goof at the palace hoping to win the hand of the princess?! I mean, really. Ok, so this could be very much a product of the time that the poem was written and the area where it all takes place. I don't know if polygamy was a regular thing or not, but it was clear that Farlaf was married and had a gaggle of children. And even through his pining for the princess, who he never even went to search for!, his wife makes googly eyes at him constantly. He dismisses her just about every time but she happily fills his mug and the table with food and drink. It's kinda gross, to be honest. But, once again, product of the time and culture.
So, while he's sitting around, drinking and eating and genrally being jovial, Naina appears to him. It's at this point, when she appears, that I realized something. Every single time she appears it is preceded with the sound of an airhorn. Like the sound if you were at a sports event and someone sounded off an air horn - BEW-BEW! - really loud. And that's the sound that was chosen in 1972 to alert the audience that the black figure in the frame was the sorceress. It was such a disconnect. I got really confused and then I just burst out laughing. It was so weird. And then, to make it even better, when she gets done with her pestering of Farlaf, where she convinces him the best thing to do would to be to kill his former friend, which would make him a hero and then he would be able to marry Ludmila (he's already married and has a bunch of kids), she goes to disappear and the sound of the air horn is played again, but this time it's reversed! I didn't notice it anywhere else in the movie, but it was so absurd.
Anyway, Naina convinces Farlaf to kill Ruslan and take Ludmila back to the Prince, claiming all of these grand tales of heroism and bravery. The Prince is overjoyed to see his daughter but is confused as to why she is asleep. When questioned, Farlaf is unable to answer, instead making up stores of who and what he battled and defeated to save her.
Meanwhile, Finn, the old hermit from the beginning on Part One, finds the deceased Ruslan. Using dead water and then living water, he is able to revive him. I didn't understand this part at all. Dead water? I am not sure what was meant by that. Maybe water that was stored in a container compared to water from a running stream? Not sure and it was not explained. But our hero is alive once again and rushes off to Kiev to reunite with Ludmila.
While Farlaf is attempting to bamboozle the Prince and Ruslan is being revived with water, one of the people at the palace sends word to the Pecheneg to attack as they are not defended. This is also not explained. I know that in many fairy tales and tales of grand heroism, there is usually a dissenter in the court of the king or the price, and they are usually trying to arrange battles against the kingdom, but they are usually found out and either the battle is stopped or is won just in the nick of time.
In this case, the word is sent and thousands of warriors show up to the palace, readying themselves for battle against, what would now seem to be the defenseless Palace in Kiev. But, in a twist, Ruslan shows up, swinging the gigantic sword that he acquired from the severed head. Armies fall under the sword. However, he never actually makes contact with any of them. They just fall. It happens again and again. After a while, he gets hold of a javelin or spear and begins kabobing the enemy warriors and riding around with them hanging from the end of his weapon. At one point, the leader of the Pechenegs looses an entire herd of cattle on him. I don't know exactly what the cattle were supposed to do, other than maybe frighten the horse and then trample them, but whatever they were supposed to do, it doesn't happen. Ruslan makes eye contact, waves his sword or something and the cattle disperse. But, they don't really disperse. The footage is rolled backward, so the cattle are now in reverse. Including their moos. It's so strange. But it was cheap and an effective use of the footage.
With the Pechenegs defeated, Ruslan rushes to Ludmila's side, using a magical ring that he acquired from somewhere to wake her from her magical sleep. The Prince is once again overjoyed to see his daughter awake and safe. Farlaf's deception is revealed and he is expelled from the kingdom. Ruslan and Ludmila are wed. The powerless Chernomor is pronouced as court jester and everyone lives happily every after.
Ummm...what can I say. This movie is clearly a product of its time, both with the story being from 1820, and probably based on a much older story, and the movie being from the early 70s. It is visually stunning, with lots of beautiful colors and scenery. The effects are silly, but not really that bad. It is quite a charming movie in the end. But just be prepared to be a little confused and to sit for 2 hours and 25 minutes.
But remember, I watched this so you don't have to.
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