I wonder why, with such impressive budgets of Western films, many films sometimes make overly comical mistakes in the spelling of Russian words? Perhaps because the percentage of viewers who know Russian is not critical? But still, this does not negate how ridiculous this or that inscription can look for a Russian-speaking person.

Suffice it to recall the classic gibberish “Aschf Fshtshfum” in Russian passport Jason Bourne or the scary cloud “Fznamznon” from the movie “Independence Day”. Of course, residents accustomed to using the Latin alphabet Western countries They won’t even be able to read it, let alone understand the meaning of the inscription. We've collected a few more examples of how Western film productions don't bother with the Russian language.

"The Billion Dollar Brain" (1967). Well, everything is clear here, keep quiet.

"The Bourne Supremacy" (2004). This is not the worst option yet.

Beautiful Russian name I corrected.

Annual Talent WOY.

"12 Monkeys" (2015).

"Legends tomorrow"(2016). The most frank marketing in the world: everything is clear and understandable.

"Chuck" (2008). Apartments, a bear, a cave - everyday life of Russian people.

"Chuck" (2008). Entering is strictly prohibited!

"Chuck" (2008). So who hates John Bush? Yakov Smirnoff?

"Mr. Bean" (1995). As you can see, in Russian the city of Moscow is called NPULTSA.

"Operation Moon" (1965). Clearly reminiscent of a fairy tale about a turnip.

"Operation Moon" (1965). In general, a completely everyday picture of an ordinary Russian town. “Dear, when you go home, grab a couple of bears, yesterday I came across something painfully sad at the market.”

Letting an ambulance pass at Tolyatti traffic lights is hard on your wallet. A Ural pensioner is being tried for trying to involve journalists in solving the housing and communal services problem. Old people from one of the houses in Veliky Novgorod accused the organizers of a holiday for autistic children of extremism. In the Novosibirsk region, a deputy cut down a swing in one of the courtyards and sent it to his holiday village. The famous Russian meme about Elon Musk has become very popular in the West.

Hello again

At first glance, it seems that a mistake occurred and the situation with the fine that the Togliatti resident received for missing an ambulance happened back in August last year. But after a detailed study of the news, it turned out: with a difference of exactly one year, the Togliatti traffic police again fined a local motorist for demonstrating civic consciousness.

Avtograd resident Victor, driving his personal vehicle, stopped at a red traffic light in front of the stop line. The sounds of a siren were heard from behind: an ambulance was approaching the intersection. The neighboring cars began to make way, and Victor followed their example. To make room for the ambulance to pass, he had to drive over the stop line.

As you may have guessed, Victor received a “letter of happiness,” and this suggests that the operators of the violation recording system are harsh and untrained. Otherwise, they would remember the events of a year ago. Then the city was outraged by the fine received by Togliatti resident Vyacheslav Strochenkov for the same action - missing an ambulance at a traffic light and running into a stop line. After wide publicity of the event, the traffic police canceled the resolution, although this cost Vyacheslav a lot of nerves. We hope that this time the “pardon” will require less effort.

Don't gather for more than two

What can you do - such is life. Now they can punish you for anything. For example, for deciding to complain to journalists about the lack of hot water. Ural pensioner Irina Kutsenok, a resident of the village of Pokrovskoye, invited television crews and neighbors to a meeting where she was going to discuss life without amenities. How did it end? Last week it became known that on August 30 a woman will be tried for organizing an unsanctioned rally.

The authorities considered her actions to be a call for unrest and filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office. The prosecutor's office, in turn, began proceedings. What's interesting, invitee film crew Vesti never came to the village, being satisfied with the authorities’ promises to resolve the problem.

Yard extremism

However, sometimes pensioners themselves act as accusers. Thus, in Veliky Novgorod, elderly people called the police to break up a holiday for autistic children, which they called “an unauthorized concert-rally for sick children.” Here's what they write about it on local social networks: “A resident of our house, Stanislav Tikhonov, became insolent and set up a children's show. There are autistic children living in the house, they have nowhere to play, and he wanted to make them happy. The man invited musicians, animatars, children and parents into the yard.

The old people didn't like it, they called the police. Pensioners, of course, can be understood. Firstly, their children are already grown up and don’t live with them, which means there is no need for a playground in the yard. Secondly, a free holiday is a mess that needs to be cleared up. Thirdly, there will be no new playground here - no one allowed you to live well.”

For your own safety

By the way, about children's playgrounds: in the village of Krasnoobsk, Novosibirsk region, from the playground kindergarten the swing is gone. In the evening of the same day, residents of the village published photos and videos on social networks in which local deputy Lysikov, chairman of the commission on landscaping, explains that the swings are being removed because they are dangerous.

“The swing is incredibly strong. They were cut down with difficulty - with gas apparatus. We specially approached and looked - there was thick steel in perfect condition, no signs of wear,” they write on social networks local residents. The next day it became known that the swing was transported to the holiday village " Quiet dawns", where, according to the website of the gardening partnership, Lysikov is the deputy chairman of the board.

Take the trouble to answer

“What are these guys accusing me of again?” – Elon Musk asked subscribers from time to time, posting screenshots of the famous Russian meme “How do you like this, Elon Musk?” (And how do you like this, Elon Musk?) The language barrier did not allow him and his fans to understand the meaning of the joke. And Runet users began calling on Elon back in the fall of 2017. Then news appeared on one of the social networks that scientists from Novosibirsk had learned to smoke herring in a collider. The author of the post asked the question: “How do you like this, Elon Musk?!” The meme began to gain momentum, increasingly appearing in the captions of photos of ridiculous or humorous inventions. The trend reached its apogee in February this year, when Musk’s company Space X launched the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle into space.

And last week, a Twitter user from Boston with the nickname Courtney drew attention to it: “In Russia, there is a meme where users tag Elon Musk in a photo with super stupid inventions, and then ask: “How do you like this, Elon Musk?” Looks like no one makes memes better than the Russians!”

It happens that a film comes out in such the right time, which becomes something of a gateway to a brave new world. These were " Star wars"in 1977, which changed the film industry's understanding of science fiction. Or 1990's Pretty Woman, which did something incredible with the usual Cinderella story. Or “Game of Thrones,” which turned from an ordinary (if perhaps very expensive) fantasy series into a role model. Or the Marvel studio with its expanded cinematic universe, which will soon overtake Star Wars in terms of income, along with all their souvenir products.

Red Heat appeared in 1988 and could also open the way to something new. For example, changing the Hollywood clichés about “these Russians”, because for Hollywood this cliche is not an essential item, but “these Russians” would stop smiling when they see a typical Soviet general from American film. But Red Heat failed to break the stereotypes. Moreover, the film, in principle, became possible thanks to previous developments. And they did not always relate to cinematography.

The first way. Arnold Schwarzenegger

An immigrant from distant Austria, the bodybuilder and world biceps champion has been conquering America since the late sixties. By the second half of the eighties, he had perhaps achieved the goal he had set in his youth. True, the breakthrough came only after the fantasy “Conan the Barbarian,” in which the Austrian courageously brandished a huge sword and ran through crowds of enemies. Little changed in subsequent projects. Conan the Destroyer, Commando, Red Sonja, No Compromise were extremely similar, and even The Terminator James Cameron didn’t stand out too much from the general scheme.

Schwarzenegger understood all this very well. But he had obvious problems with his accent, which cut off the lion's share of possible roles. And the fame of an “action hero” was already beginning to haunt him. True, in this glory there was also positive point: the actor could already independently choose where to star, and after the not-too-warm reception of the film “No Compromise” in 1986, he began to seriously think about his future career. The result was the comedy "Twins", in which he played with the brilliant Danny DeVito, as well as agreement to a long-planned collaboration with director Walter Hill: in an action film, true, but in some sense unusual.

The second way. Walter Hill

By the mid-eighties, this director could easily be called venerable. He was just over forty, in the sixties he was engaged in historical documentaries, then, with the help of the Directors Guild of America, he received an appropriate education and worked as an assistant to his colleagues. Among them there were sonorous names: for example, he collaborated with Woody Allen in the painting “Grab the Money and Run.” But he himself always counted on something more. The scripts also didn’t work out at first. His first work underwent a major reworking by the director Roberta Culpa(the crime thriller “Hickey and Boggs”), he rewrote other people’s scripts and dreamed of working independently.

However, he managed to find a producer who believed in the ambitious newcomer, and his debut film was the drama “Hard Times” with Charles Bronson— proved to be a commercial success and earned critical praise. Slowly but surely, Hill rose to the forefront: his films “The Driver” and “The Warriors” were released, and he participated in the Cannes Film Festival. And in 1982, his action comedy film “Forty-Eight Hours” became a real hit and glorified the debutant actor Eddie Murphy.

But then it wasn’t a very good time for Walter Hill. He was unable to repeat his successes; new projects turned out to be much lower in level and could not add points to him. It was then that he decided to repeat the technique used in “Forty-Eight Hours”: make a crime thriller about police partners. To increase the chances of creating something unusual, Hill brought the changed international situation and Schwarzenegger into the project. Moreover, the actor agreed to the role only based on the synopsis: the full script did not yet exist.

Directed by Walter Hill. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

The third way. Perestroika

Helped with the international situation Soviet Union. And then everything changed literally before our eyes. It seemed like just recently Ronald Reagan called the USSR the “Evil Empire” and was going to stage “Star Wars” in space; such odious films as “Red Dawn” or “Moscow on the Hudson” had just been released. And now “these Russians” have come up with some kind of Perestroika, their leader meets with Reagan, they agree on détente and call for peace. In general, the usual ideas needed to be urgently changed. To be fair, the pioneer was the film “The Russians” in 1987, in which a Russian sailor for some reason did not eat American children (one of them was played by a very young Joaquin Phoenix). But “Red Heat” was lucky: it became a symbol of a short-term change in Hollywood’s attitude towards the USSR and then Russia.

When they got together

The plot of the film is really far from reality. Soviet policeman Ivan Danko ( Schwarzenegger) is trying to catch a Soviet drug lord, a Georgian named Viktor Rustavili ( Edward O'Ross), but during the chase he loses his partner, and the criminal escapes to the United States, where he is detained for crossing the street incorrectly. Since Perestroika began, Rustavili is going to be deported to the Union, and Danko himself, who speaks good English, comes after him. But the defendant escapes again. Danko teams up with Chicago police officer Ridzik ( James Belushi), after which he makes a rustling noise on the streets of a defenseless city, almost like an evil alien in the recent “Predator”. Of course, in the end, good kills evil and wins. Peace, friendship, chewing gum.

Now it is difficult to say whether the American audiences who brought their hard-earned money to the cinemas laughed while watching the film. But for visitors to the first video salons in the USSR, “Red Heat” was a natural comedy. Particular pleasure was given by those moments in which Schwarzenegger’s character tried to speak Russian. “What is your evidence?!” Cocainum!”, “Kapytalizm”, “Hooligans”, “Russian? Sovetsky” - these phrases, spoken with a characteristic accent, immediately became popular among the people. Walter Hill, for some reason, did not take advantage of the help of the actors who escaped from the USSR, although they starred in the film Oleg Vidov(deceased friend of Danko) and Saveliy Kramarov(Soviet embassy employee). They would be happy to help the American director bring at least the form in which Schwarzenegger's character walks closer to reality. On the other hand, Hill initially wanted to film something outside the bounds of reality, so his idea worked out: albeit, perhaps, not quite the way he wanted.