''Optimistic Tragedy'' (, translit. ''Optimisticheskaya tragediya'') is a 1963 Soviet film directed by

Samson Samsonov Samson Iosifovich Samsonov (; 23 February 1921 – 31 August 2002) was a Soviet and Russian film director and screenwriter, he was granted the honorary title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1991. Samson Samsonov graduated from Gerasimov Insti ...

. It is based on the play '' An Optimistic Tragedy'' by Vsevolod Vishnevsky. During

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

of 1917, the Marine squad, led by

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

leader Vozhak starts the revolt. The Central Committee of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

Party sends a woman

Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means ' commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and ...

to form

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

battalion from the marines to take part in the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

Plot

In 1918, aboard the warship ''Gromoboy'', anarchist sailors hold control until a woman commissar is sent by the Bolshevik Central Committee to impose order. The anarchist leader, Vozhak, dominates the crew, while the commissar is tasked with reorganizing the naval unit into the First Sailors' Regiment to fight on the Black Sea front. Among the few remaining officers is Lieutenant Bering, a former tsarist navy officer from the battleship ''Imperator Pavel I'', who is appointed to lead the regiment alongside the commissar. Her mission proves challenging as she must earn the sailors’ trust and eradicate the rampant anarchy. Vozhak incites an attempt to assault the commissar, but she defends herself, shooting one of the attackers and declaring defiantly, "Well, who else wants to try the commissar's body?" Despite pressure from his follower, the syphilitic Sipy, to kill her, Vozhak refuses, arguing that her anarchistic spirit makes her valuable. A tense dialogue ensues between the commissar, Vozhak, Sipy, and another anarchist sailor, Alexei, as they debate their loyalties and purpose. The commissar asserts the Bolsheviks’ direction and determination, even amidst resistance and skepticism. When the unit is reformed and sent to the front, the sailors confront difficult moral choices. Vozhak orders the execution of two former officers, only for the commissar to retaliate by commanding Alexei to execute Vozhak. Sipy betrays the unit, leading to their capture by German forces. The commissar is killed, but Alexei and a few others manage to escape captivity.

Cast

* Margarita Volodina as Commissar * Boris Andreyev as Vozhak *

Vyacheslav Tikhonov Vyacheslav Vasilyevich Tikhonov (; 8 February 1928 – 4 December 2009) was a Soviet and Russian actor whose best known role was as Soviet spy Stierlitz in the television series ''Seventeen Moments of Spring''. He was a recipient of numerou ...

as Aleksey * Vsevolod Sanayev as Sipliy * Erast Garin as Vozhachok * Vsevolod Safonov * Oleg Strizhenov as First officer * Gleb Strizhenov * Valentin Belokhvostik * Ivan Bondar

Production

The film ''Optimistic Tragedy'' is based on the 1933 play '' An Optimistic Tragedy'' by Vsevolod Vishnevsky, set during the Russian Revolution.

directed the film. It was shot in Sovscope 70 on black and white film stock. The prints were split into three films for exhibition in Kinopanorama 70 in some theatres.

Release

The film was entered into competition at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. The

Kino International The Kino International is a film theater in Berlin, built from 1961 to 1963. It is located on Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. It hosted premieres of the DEFA film studios until the Berlin Wall#The Fall, fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. T ...

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

opened on 15 November 1963 with a grand opening premiere of the film.

Reception

''Optimistic Tragedy'' was a Soviet blockbuster of 1963, with 46 million tickets sold. The film was named Best Film of the Year and Margarita Volodina was named Best Actress of the Year by readers of the Soviet film magazine '' Sovetsky Ekran''. Richard Porton, in his 1999 book ''Film and the Anarchist Imagination'', describes ''Optimistic Tragedy'' as "ingloriously

didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain. ...

" and "typical of Soviet attempts to rationalize the brutal assault on the Kronstadt communards".

References

External links

* 1963 films 1963 war films 1960s historical drama films 1960s war drama films 1960s Soviet films 1960s Russian-language films Soviet historical drama films Soviet war drama films Russian Revolution films Films directed by Samson Samsonov Mosfilm films Soviet films based on plays Soviet epic films Soviet black-and-white films Russian Civil War films Russian-language historical drama films Russian-language war drama films {{war-drama-film-stub