Three classic Hollywood movies that Soviet Russia made first
Many scholars, academics, and historians have posited there are only seven different types of stories to have ever been told across all forms of media, which does at least help explain why three stone-cold Hollywood classics have a lot in common with lesser-heralded spiritual predecessors to emerge from Russia.
Each of them ticks one of the boxes associated with the septet, too, which claims that overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, rebirth, comedy, and tragedy are the only archetypes to exist. Think of any movie that’s ever been made, and it’s easy to see why it’s such a popular theory.
Of course, there are an infinite amount of twists, turns, and embellishments that can be applied to the basic structure, but as it applies to a trio of top-tier Tinseltown titles, the similarities between those tales and their Soviet-era counterparts are more than superficial.
In fact, Leonid Gaidai’s 1973 sci-fi comedy Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession has so much in common with a certain beloved blockbuster that it’s been marketed in various countries as Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future, so there aren’t going to be any prizes for guessing what it could have possibly been compared to.
Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis were turned down by every major studio while pitching their time-travelling escapade hinging on Michael J Fox’s Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd’s Doc Brown until Steven Spielberg stepped in with a timely assist that gave the film business one of its most enduringly beloved slices of all-ages escapism.
In Russia, the story follows a scientist who accidentally sends the superintendent of his apartment building and a petty criminal back to the time period of Ivan the Terrible, making protagonist Shurik Timofeyev both Marty and Doc in this instance. Both are light-hearted and frivolous romps reflecting on moments in history, but they’re also reflective of the countries they were made and the time period they were made in.
Robin Williams’ Mrs. Doubtfire may have been based on a book, but it’s also got a connection to Babbs Baberly, played by Alexander Kalyagin in Viktor Titov’s 1975 romp Hello, I’m Your Aunt!, itself loosely based on a play. The hero in both cases is a man who masquerades as an older woman to get what they want, and each faces obstacles along the way in a comedic vehicle that still seeks to subvert established gender roles and norms, as well as the lengths some men will go to in order to circumvent society’s declaration to stop them from getting what they believe they deserve.
Action epics don’t come much more unique than George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, or do they? Common sense would indicate yes because there isn’t another auteur on the planet who could have made the jaw-dropping post-apocalyptic spectacular, although Vladimir Motyl may have been inclined to disagree had the White Sun of the Desert director lived long enough to see it.
Balancing action and drama with the occasional dose of comedy, the narrative zeroes in on a veteran warrior with a loner complex in the midst of a widespread conflict set against an arid backdrop who finds himself guarding the harem of a powerful, fearsome, and feared leader who views the women as little more than objects he can pick up and discard at will once they’ve outlived their usefulness. Fury Road or White Sun of the Desert? In this case, the answer is both.
Both are indebted to the spirit of the classic western, both were hugely popular, and both became instant sensations. Hollywood is hardly looking to the Soviet back catalogue for inspiration and ripping it off liberally, obviously, but that doesn’t make it any less curious.
