Nochnoi Dozor

Next up, as promised, is 'Nochnoi Dozor,' or for you non-Russian speakers, 'Night Watch.' This is one of the coolest movies I've ever seen. And I wouldn't have seen it if it weren't for my friend Chris. He's a huge horror fan and I have, as previously mentioned, a strong aversion to horror. When he told me he was going to watch a Russian horror movie all I could see in my brain was Eisenstein's 'Battleship Potemkin' with more blood and gore. NO THANK YOU. We were both working at a video store at the time and when it came out on DVD, after much cojoling he convinced me to give it a go. Thankfully Chris is fairly convincing or else I would've missed out on Timur Bekmambetov's lovely distopian creation.

Timur Bekmambetov has brought a dark and grimy Moscow to the screen and I must admit, it's fairly beautiful in its grittiness. Unlike so many other movies of this kind ('Underworld' and the like ) where the world in which the supernatural beings exist is dark but slick and glamourous, 'Night Watch' is decidedly the opposite. Bekmambetov makes no attempt to gloss up his city for the movie, all the dirt and grime are left on the surface and add to the overall atmosphere of the movie. 

Within these grimy circumstances the movie revolves around Anton Gorodetsky, a member of the titular Night Watch. Anton is an Other, someone with a supernatural gift of some kind. The Night Watch keeps tabs on any rogue Dark others and they have counterparts in the Day Watch who look out for any bad moves on the Light side. Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) has chosen to use his talents as a Seer for the Light Others. He can tell who is an Other just by looking at them, and drinking blood enhances this talent, despite the fact that he clearly despises drinking it. Khabensky is wonderful as the scruffy hero. Through him it becomes painfully apparent that while Anton believes in what he's doing with the Night Watch, the job really takes a lot out of him. 

While the archetype of the plot, good vs evil, is one of the simplest that exist in film, there's a lot going on in the movie. So much so that I feel that even trying to go any more into the plot would extend this post exponentially and who wants that? Not me, that's for sure. Also, while mentioning plot I should mention that this movie is based on a Russian trilogy of sci-fi books, which I haven't read. I know, a movie based on a book and I haven't read it, I'm shocked too...but in my defense, it is a Russian book. (although I'm pretty sure it's been translated)

One last indulgence from me I have to mention are the visuals in this movie. The action is amazing, Bekmambetov mentions that the Wachowskis (maybe you've heard of them) are inspirations of his and it shows, especially in the cuts and in the innovations that Bekmambetov has made is this movie. However, there are no crazy wire stunts in this movie, but the fights that are in it retain the realism that Bekmambetov established in the setting of the movie. Another great touch are the subtitles, they are wonderful. Unlike boring old subtitles that sit on the bottom of the screen these ones scroll across and then fade away, lurk in the corner and turn red. Foreign filmmakers take note! All subtitles should be like this! 

Alrighty, that's enough I think, enough to hopefully tease you into going to try some awesome Russian cinema! Here's the trailer and until next time keep it reel! 

(a little post script here, if you want to watch the whole movie in two minutes, it's been condensed on the official website here...it's awesome both ways.)