Lee Eisenberg Vladimir Motyl's "Beloe solntse pustyni" ("White Sun of the Desert" in English) looks at a Red Army soldier who has to look after a harem in Central Asia right after the 1917 revolution. One can see a stark contrast between the desolate setting and the soldier's bucolic homeland (shown through communications with his wife).I didn't find this to be a great movie, but it was interesting to see a culture that we don't often get to see. In this case it also incorporates history. And finally, a deliberately ambiguous ending. Not a great movie, but a clever one. I can see why it was a box office hit. I do recommend it if you can find a copy.

vladislavmanoylo White Sun of the Desert is a very entertaining and bold movie, to put it simply it's a crowd-pleasing movie. This movie is very good at being what it is, so while it doesn't exist in the realms of high art or ground-breaking experiences, it's certainly worth watching to someone wanting to enjoy an action-adventure with some decent comedy throughout.The hero is a slightly more Russian classic action hero - impossibly competent and reliable, full of charm and wit, trying to get home to his peaceful life and adored wife but is entangled into a mess caused by the villain. A picture of his character can be almost entirely given in two scenes- while he has the villain cornered he nonchalantly releases a rope resulting in a henchman being knocked out on the other side of a wall; and in a scene where he is cornered instead and the enemies ask him if he would prefer a quick death or a torturous one, he naturally and nonchalantly answers that he would prefer torture- and almost immediately afterwards escapes from his captives with his reflexes and good aim.The villain is of course capable of despicable acts, talks very friendly to the people he is trying to kill, and is bound to lose. There are of course other characters and aspects to the film, but the hero is the driving force to the extent that, much like James Bond or Sherlock Holmes, another setting with him would produce a very similar film. Other than the conflict between the characters of the hero and villain, another central conflict is the one between cultures of the two. But that conflict is presented through characters and not necessarily philosophy or politics as might be expected from a soviet union film.Overall this movie is just fun. It's comfortable trading realism for more exciting scenes, and somewhat trading complexity in characters for likability. It's enough to make the audience care for what happens to the characters and their struggles, and its worth watching.

psbarlo-1 I have seen the impact that the American Western had on the Italians ("The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly") and now I have seen its influence of the Russians. This "Ostern" tackles the subject matter of civil war, bigamy, and death with a wonderful lack of pretense that is expected from a John Wayne movie; all that has changed are the ideologies. With a little more in common with "Lawrence of Arabia" than just sand the movie focuses on an unextraordinary man forced to rise to the occasion of being a hero. The lead is extremely engaging as a man who never looses his laid-back attitude even as soldiers pour oil around him and the many wives. His fidelity to his farm wife provides for the movie's highlight. He imagines his wife surrounded by the entire harem performing chores around the field. The clashing of East and... well, further East provides for many comical situations. The way the harem acts around the men in the museum is countered by the men lusting after them.

Oleg Sinitsin The plot is about East and West in their permanent conflict. An experienced and wise ex-soldier is asked to deliver sheik's harem on his way home. The sheik retaliates... Tons of good humor. Many phrases from this legendary movie have made it into everyday language. In the early space age, this was the one movie cassette astronauts took to the orbit. I would like to invite visitors to see pictures from the movie and watch a detailed trailer at RussArt.com. Those who read Russian can find more materials useful: reviews, actor biographies, articles, etc.Pictures: http://russart.com/?moviepictures&mid=6 .Trailer: http://russart.com/?movietrailer&mid=6 .