Air Crew

Air Crew (Ekipazh) (1979... or 1980)

Runtime: 137 minutes

Directed by: Aleksandr Mitta

Starring: Georgi Zhzhyonov, Anatoliy Vasilev, Leonid Filatov, Alexandra Yakovleva, Irina Akulova

From: Mosfilm

Yes, even the Soviet Union once made a disaster movie. I realize that now may not be the best time to mention something from Russia, but... let me not go into detail on real life geopolitics and instead just note that movies from the Soviet Union or even Russia after Communism fell can be rather interesting, nevermind the Soviet or Russian government. I have no Russian blood in me I've known of this movie for awhile, but just recently discovered it is available for free on YouTube... and officially, on the YouTube channel that Mosfilm has. As that studio has been around for 98 years, there's no shortage of videos they have posted. Only some have English subtitles, but thankfully this was one that does.

This movie has an interesting structure; literally the first 80 of the 137 minute runtime is spent w/ three pilots, who afterwards are shown on the same ill-fated plane. The pre-tragedy may sound like a drag, but for me it wasn't. It was incredibly melodramatic as the trio had their problems. The first has a pregnant teen daughter, the second has a monster of a wife who at least by my interpretation has an undiagnosed mental disorder & they divorce (by the by, I learned from the movie that divorces were apparently done in the Soviet Union by a panel of three judges-that may still happen in Russia now for all I know) and the third is my favorite—he is a swingin' bachelor who has a bitchin' apartment filled with multicolored lights. He finds a new girl I'll describe as Soviet Amber Tamblyn and of course is a flight attendant so how he impresses her in his digs is to turn on the lights and turn on the stereo, which plays what I'll call SOVIET DISCO MUSIC. As a simple YouTube search reveals that even synthpop made its way behind the Iron Curtain in the 80's, I was not too surprised to hear such a thing-although odd-sounding, it was.

Once the relationship stuff is over with, it is not long before the disaster happens. A plane w/ the three pilots & Soviet Amber Tamblyn flies to a fictional city in the mountains to haul supplies as the area has been ravaged w/ earthquakes. Utter carnage happens for the next 10 or so minutes as many miniatures are wrecked by fire, explosions, a mudslide, and a big-ass earthquake. The flight back is a rescue mission as people are hauled out but the plane is damaged during takeoff, leading to a moment or two that is probably far-fetched, but I'm sure it's par for the course in the Western disaster films of the time. The miniature work looks good compared to what was shown in 70's Hollywood films.

As long as you can be amused at the melodrama before the special effects happen, it's worthy of viewing for those that dig the subgenre; the drama does stress the point of how great pilots can have a much more difficult time when they're on the ground. Thus, that's why I was invested in a Communist version of a familiar tale-although there being some cursing and even a topless woman in one scene was quite the surprise.