Tikhiy Don (1957)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Sergei Gerasimov

Writers:

Sergei Gerasimov (writer)
Mikhail Sholokhov (novel)

Release Date:

1 January 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

A six-hour long epic (original director's cut) about the life of Don Cossacs in a village in southern Russia between 1912 and 1922...

Plot Keywords:

Russian Revolution | Cossack | Remake | Bolshevik | River

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Pyotr Glebov	...	Grigori Melekhov
Elina Bystritskaya	...	Aksiniya
Zinaida Kiriyenko	...	Natalya
Daniil Ilchenko	...	Panteleimon Prokofyevich Melekhov (as Danilo Ilchenko)
Lyudmila Khityayeva	...	Dariya Melekhova
Nikolai Smirnov	...	Pyotr Melekhov
Aleksandr Zhukov	...	Miron Koshevoy
Natalya Arkhangelskaya	...	Dunyashka (as N. Arkhangelskaya)
Aleksandra Denisova	...	Lukinichna
Aleksandr Blagovestov	...	Stepan Lekatov (as A. Blagovestov)
Boris Novikov	...	Mitka Korshunov
Igor Dmitriyev	...	Yevgeni Listnitsky
Mikhail Gluzsky	...	Yesaul Kalmykov (as M. Gluzsky)
Viliam Shatunovsky	...	Shtokman (as V. Shatunovsky)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
V. Bubnov
Vyacheslav Butenko
Pyotr Chernov	...	Bunchik
A. Filippova
Aleksandr Grave
Dmitri Kapka	...	Ded Sashka (as D. Kapka)
A. Karpov
G. Karyakin	...	Mikhail Koshevoy
Valentina Khmara	...	Mashutka Koshevaya
Pyotr Lyubeshkin	...	Martin Shamil
Yelena Maksimova	...	Mother Koshevaya
Olga Markina
Nikolai Muravyov	...	Podtelkov
Vladimir Muravyov
Aleksandr Shatov	...	Listnitsky Father
Lyubov Sokolova
M. Stepanov	...	Stepan Astakhov
Semyon Svashenko	...	Garandzha
Aleksandr Titov
N. Tyamin
Mikhail Vasilyev
Inna Vykhodtseva
Sergei Yurtajkin	...	Valet
Vadim Zakharchenko	...	Prokhor Zykov

Also Known As:

Тихий Дон (Soviet Union: Russian title)
And Quiet Flows the Don (USA)

Runtime:

USA:107 min | Soviet Union:340 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color (Sovcolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Company:

Gorky Film Studios

Trivia:

Original Russian film is 340 minutes long (film length 9,582 m). It was reduced to 107 minutes for international distribution.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Tikhiy Don II (1958)

Great Cossack Epic

I would highly recommend this film to anyone that is interested in Cossack history and culture and/or early Soviet history. However, if you don't already have an interest in these areas, you will likely find the films very slow and boring. All three parts take some patience to watch due to their length and pacing, especially the first part which really isn't all that exciting and is more of a soap opera as others have mentioned.

A couple bits of advice for the foreign/western viewer:

1. The first part may not be as exciting as the last two, but it introduces you to all the characters in the film and fleshes out their relations to each other. To get the most out of the parts 2 and 3, it is important to make an effort to put names to faces and note how each character is related to each other.

2. The films were made for audiences that already had some knowledge of Cossacks and this period in history (WWI, Russian revolution, and the civil war). There are scenes that take place in parts 2 and 3 that no background information is given on, and if you are not familiar with the history will be somewhat confusing. It is highly recommended that one do a little reading online on Cossack history during this period before viewing this miniseries. It would also help to have a basic understanding of Russian revolution and subsequent civil war.