The series "Ashes". Feedback from viewers and experts

In the autumn of last year, the TV channel "Russia-1" pleased the viewer with an action series "Ashes". The reviews, however, turned out to be mixed, despite the chic promotion arranged long before the show. They mentioned both the exciting plot and the stellar composition of the painting. What was dissatisfied with the critics?

So, in 1938, the captain of the Red Army Igor Petrov (played by Vladimir Mashkov) waiting for Stalin's dungeons. At the same time, the thief Senka Ashes (Yevgeny Mironov) is taking the jewels stolen the day before in the thieving obshchak. Heroes are found in the train compartment. On the way, accomplices attack Ashes, but Captain Petrov interferes in the brawl at a decisive moment. Now he has on his hands a blood-stained body of a thief and a bag full of jewels. Petrov grabs the chance to avoid arrest and, disguising himself in Senka's clothes (not forgetting to dress up a lying thief in his form) and taking the treasure, hides in an inconspicuous village. Then Ashes with documents Petrova wake up in a military hospital and fall into the hands of the NKVD, and the former Red Army man will be in the clutches of bandits demanding the return of their obshchak.

The Great Patriotic War begins. Passed officer's training from a cellmate - an inflexible military cadre (Vladimir Gostyukhin) - Senka, and now "Captain Petrov", successfully fights and attains the rank of colonel. A former Red Army soldier knocks together a gang that intercepts the fascists' values, which they are preparing to export to Germany. After the war, the gang, in the guise of prospectors, works at the mine and robs gold mined there. The fate of the former thief and former officer clashed in Karelia: now Colonel "Petrov" must catch a dangerous and cunning "Ashes". The stumbling block is Rita, the wife of the real Petrova, who is forced to become Petrov's fictitious wife. For her sake, the characters are ready to forget both duty and honor and ethics. It turns out to be a tragic victim of a story with a substitute.

I do not believe it, gentlemen!

What caused the "Ashes" (series) reviews in the film critics? The TV-correspondent Arina Borodina did not have enough reliability. She rebuked the creators of the series in the absence of logic and the psychological background of the actions of the characters. Let's close our eyes to the observation that after the rivers of blood spilled during torture, the clothes of the heroes remain immaculately clean. Suppose this is a convention. An artistic device can be called and countless coincidences, in which the characters are always there (and with those), where necessary. But why should such an officer, who is right at the beginning of the film, answer with an uncompromising refusal and go to the People's Commissariat on the agenda, suddenly become a criminal? Yes, and Senka Ashes with its dark past does not look too believable in the guise of a brave and noble colonel, an order bearer who survived inhuman tortures. However, in order not to be exposed, he sometimes has to dissemble and dodge. And this, too, does not add integrity to the character that the authors try to recreate.

A bomb, not a movie!

And what about the authors left their work on the film "Ashes"? An outrageous writer and blogger Eduard Bagirov, who wrote the script in co-authorship with Renat Khayrullin, on the eve of the premiere, guaranteed that the series would "tear to shreds" all the projects that existed up to now. Director Vadim Perelman (Hollywood celebrity, but originally from the USSR) was also convinced that the film was doomed to success. Producer Timur Weinstein did not doubt that this was "an entirely new level for domestic television." It was rumored that the film would compete with the "Meeting Point" (referring to S. Govorukhin's picture). Some alliteration really is: the ashes of a cigar as a visiting card of a bandit at the crime scene, which understand the peer-eyed peer exchanges with the recidivist Voron on thieves' meeting, etc. In both films, suspense and action are sufficient, but in the Govorukhin ribbon the plot was built according to all laws Detective genre, and it was clear who the criminal was, and who was the hero. In "Ash" there is no such clarity, as there is not one unreservedly positive hero.

Schniffer, not a bear cub

Critical about the series "Ashes" reviews police pros. An employee of the modern MUR, Gennady Sarychev, noted that Ash is incorrectly called in the frame by a bear-bearer. Those hack safes roughly, cutting through the metal slots and bending off the lid. Masterly work with master keys, and even for a few minutes, until the cigarette is extinguished, is called the art of a shnifer. Unlike cinematographers filming domestic detectives, the creators of "Ashes" in the police department did not apply for information.

Do not sharpen a red pencil

Not so picky and categorical about the series "Ashes" reviews of most moviegoers. Disconnects with chronology, geography and texture, they call trifles, but highly appreciate the rich, far from banal plot and fascinating psychological intrigue. So do not watch this movie with a red pencil at the ready and notice "bloopers." What is really dear to the viewer is the embodiment (let on the screen) of a dream to live not only one's own, but another, radically opposite fate.

Is it possible to consider the final of the film open? Where, with a broken heart, rides a motorcycle over the broken Petrov-Ashes car, and did his enemy survive again? The authors do not promise the continuation of history. But if it does happen, the film "Ashes" (2013), whose reviews are a curious duel of opinions, will remain in the annals of the national film history one of the brightest events.