[HN Gopher] Soviet TV version of Lord of the Rings rediscovered ...
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Soviet TV version of Lord of the Rings rediscovered after 30 years
Author : samizdis
Score : 190 points
Date : 2021-04-05 10:45 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| 0x6A75616E wrote:
| Somebody should go tell Bald and Bankrupt about this :0
| sigg3 wrote:
| This is beautiful. Thank you!
| andreasley wrote:
| Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vquKyNdgH3s
|
| Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLevCLNnLmg
| dwighttk wrote:
| Anyone know how to get English captions?
|
| Also found this version of The Hobbit (as I don't know Russian
| I have no idea if this is solid or not)
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ekbJdOGAxPQ
| Arech wrote:
| Wow, never knew this theatrical adaptation existed. Seems
| valid at first glance. Special thanks from my wife for the
| link))
|
| (sorry, don't know about English captions. Seems like they
| aren't available for it)
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| The first meeting with Golem appears to be around 34:14.
| Not a bad job of Golem if you had to create him with makeup
| and costume only.
| teddyh wrote:
| That's "Gollum" (or possibly "Gollum").
| thih9 wrote:
| When going to youtube, I'm seeing a full page cookie consent
| and I can't proceed to the video without interacting with it. I
| didn't see that before.
|
| I browse in private mode and clear cookies, looks like they
| want to show that page for every video in that case. Is there a
| plugin or tool that works around a page like this?
| markvdb wrote:
| mpv ytdl://ytsearch:'Khraniteli'
| Kelamir wrote:
| Wow, didn't know of it! Thank you very much, markvdb. I
| already see how much time it's going to save me.
| markvdb wrote:
| My pleasure. Making people happy makes me smile.
| crtasm wrote:
| https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/412178-youtube-dismiss-
| sig...
| jhgb wrote:
| Does this work even with YT's new full page nagware? That
| page only mentions pop-ups.
| tomcooks wrote:
| https://invidious.xyz/
| Arech wrote:
| Thanks for the links! I wonder why they didn't post the links
| in the article?
| crtasm wrote:
| They are in the article - don't know if they were added since
| you posted.
| kawsper wrote:
| They're afraid you might leave their "universe" and lose ad
| money.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| > The score, composed by Andrei Romanov of the rock band Akvarium
|
| > In the opening song, Romanov sings a rough translation of
| Tolkien's description of the origins of the rings of power,
|
| The Soviets had their own Led Zeppelin. Perhaps we weren't so
| different after all.
| danohuiginn wrote:
| Similarly, there is an early-90s Russian version of The Wizard Of
| Oz. Watching it with the help of Youtube's auto-translated
| subtitles was...quite an experience.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7gbwu0A3s8
| BlueGh0st wrote:
| I can't add this to a playlist (even the built-in 'Watch
| Later') because YouTube considers it made for children. What a
| useless anti-feature.
| throwaway3699 wrote:
| This happened when a YouTube peado ring was discovered using
| playtests and comments to share clips. COPPA was also
| becoming an issue again, so they did this.
| tzfld wrote:
| I love watching old Soviet sf movies on youtube. Auto generated
| and translated subtitles are sometimes tricky but the visuals
| are great.
| slackfan wrote:
| Also "rediscovered" by The Guardian maybe. It's been well-traded
| on Russian torrent sites for years. The article makes it seem
| like it was lost to time or something.
| udev wrote:
| Context is essential for understanding art.
|
| This was released in 1991, a period of great economic and
| political turmoil in Russia. They were essentially in the process
| of switching from one-party communism to a democratic system with
| real private property. Many organizations were undergoing rapid
| (often overnight) privatization.
|
| Just to give you an idea of the economic chaos, inflation in 1992
| was 2000%. You can imagine how that plays out for a production
| budget.
|
| Yet, despite the turbulence, people tried to create and to
| entertain.
| camjohnson26 wrote:
| Somebody here posted the Soviet Winnie the Pooh a while back,
| very charming:
|
| https://youtu.be/bEwE4wyz00o
| billfruit wrote:
| Really impressive and very stylized. Soviet children's book etc
| had a very splendid art style.
| jan_Inkepa wrote:
| > Aired 10 years before the release of the first instalment of
| Peter Jackson's movie trilogy, the low-budget film appears ripped
| from another age: the costumes and sets are rudimentary, the
| green-screen effects are ludicrous, and many of the scenes look
| more like a theatre production than a feature-length film.
|
| I wish the article wasn't so sneering in tone... sneering is good
| larks if you're on board with it, but if you come in like "oh
| wait this actually seems interesting" it can be a bit off-
| putting. However, it is nice to know of this show's existence,
| and I'm grateful to learn of that.
| Uhhrrr wrote:
| I just went back and watched the BBC adaptation of Hitchhiker's
| Guide to the Galaxy, and those who live in glass houses
| shouldn't throw stones.
| gumby wrote:
| Do you mean BBC _TV_? HHGTTG was originally a radio play made
| by the BBC (Radio 4), later adapted as books.
| nullifidian wrote:
| >more like a theatre production than a feature-length film
|
| Because it was basically a "television play", a hybrid between
| a theater production and a higher budget TV series/film. Such
| things were common on Soviet TV.
|
| One has to understand that Soviet Union was relatively poor
| when compared with the west, especially so during perestroika.
|
| For example "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" is another Soviet
| tv play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCutJ-7acvg
| jefurii wrote:
| Many of the original Star Trek episodes look like a TV play
| too. Lots of backgrounds that are just colored lights where
| today you'd expect to see some setpiece. It's all about the
| story anyway.
| jhgb wrote:
| You mean something like UK's "I, Claudius"?
| bjelkeman-again wrote:
| Which, once you get over the low production values, is
| actually a very good series. Amazing actors, including
| Derek Jacobi. I once saw Derek Jacobi and Robert Lindsey in
| a play on stage, Becket, which had a few cloths and
| spotlights as props. These people can act. It was amazing.
| jhgb wrote:
| I never considered it a bad series. We had it on TV even
| behind the Iron Curtain before 1989.
| DavidAdams wrote:
| The production values of this Soviet Lord of the Rings
| strike me as quite similar to I, Claudius. And it's worth
| noting that the televised low-budget stage play production
| values of I, Claudius notwithstanding, it's one of the best
| television shows ever made.
| nullifidian wrote:
| From what I've seen on youtube regarding British TV plays,
| they were much much higher budget, and much closer to just
| a normal TV series/film, maybe with a theatrical dramatic
| flare, while Soviet TV plays often had abstract "modern
| theatre" like decorations, fewer or no background
| characters, other cost cutting measures, much closer to
| theater in terms of production.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| TV plays also used to be very common in the UK.
| blowski wrote:
| The best adaptations of Shakespeare were TV plays. A lot of
| CGI is now trying to mask the lack of good plot.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| I also think many classic TV shows are effectively TV
| plays - such as Star Trek, the Twilight Zone, etc.
| blowski wrote:
| You're right, that's a really fascinating observation. I
| can see myself noticing that on future shows.
| versale wrote:
| Actually it is a theater adaptation, but aired on TV. I
| remember that time. The Leningrad TV made plenty of similar TV-
| plays for children featuring actors from Leningrad theaters.
|
| I find it funny that such production is compared with Jackson's
| trilogy now.
| guerrilla wrote:
| It's like they pulled one of their Cold War era writers out of
| retitrment just for this article...
| essentialoils wrote:
| no, he looks like a freshly minted cold warrior. andrew roth
| should go and dig up scifi from bbc and compare "green-screen
| effects".
| IgorPartola wrote:
| I love Star Trek TNG but it was about as "ludicrous" in a
| lot of ways.
|
| I also grew up on Soviet movies and cartoons so this
| doesn't look as out of place to me as I guess it might to
| someone who's never seen this genre of film.
| jahnu wrote:
| Totally :)
|
| https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/startrek/images/2/20/Sk
| ino...
| Igelau wrote:
| Anyone familiar enough with the language to figure out what
| happened to Gandalf in Part 2? They have him crossing the bridge,
| there's a spooky tunnel, there's a lot of talk from Scarface
| (Aragorn?) and some of the hobbits cry. But there's no Balrog!
| skvark wrote:
| There exists also a Finnish mini series called "The Hobbits"
| (1993): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHFKdgjEugs
| twic wrote:
| More recently, Russians made a pretty decent Dragonlance musical:
|
| https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2020/08/dd-wait-hang-on-ther...
| konart wrote:
| Yep.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfuKRdgnmO8 - this is the best
| version in my opinion (aside from the "classic" version with
| Natalia O'Shea as Takhisis)
| kofejnik wrote:
| quite amazingly, it was written, produced and performed by
| (mostly) hobbyist musicians and actors from Russia's pretty
| sizeable LARP community (though some leads are pros)
| twic wrote:
| Russian LARPers built a steam tank:
|
| http://nyc.qadviser.com/articles/steamtank-featuring-
| warhamm...
|
| Do not taunt Russian LARPers.
| technofiend wrote:
| Anecdotally since I see people referring to other Soviet TV shows
| making their way to Western audiences a friend turned me to on
| Comrade Detective. It's a fascinating view into propaganda as
| entertainment from the Cold War. It's free on Amazon Prime's
| streaming service.
|
| From IMDB:
|
| _Parody comedy designed to resemble a non-existent gritty 1980
| 's Cold War Romanian police show that promoted Communist ideals.
| The action-packed and blood-soaked first season finds Detectives
| Gregor Anghel and Joseph Baciu investigating the murder of fellow
| officer Nikita Ionescu and, in the process, unraveling a
| subversive plot to destroy their country that is fueled by what-
| else-but the greatest enemy: Capitalism._
|
| https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5834198/
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| >The Soviet version includes some plot elements left out of
| Jackson's $93m blockbuster, including an appearance by the
| character Tom Bombadil, a forest dweller cut from the English-
| language version because he was too long-winded and failed to
| move the plot forward.
|
| Someone involved with this piece is still bitter that Tom
| Bombadil was cut from the trilogy.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Curious character. Provided some backstory regarding the
| origins of magic and layered perception of the universe. Lots
| of color about culture. Didn't move the plot forward? The
| Hobbit is what, 300+ pages? What fraction of that actually
| _did_ move the plot forward?
| titzer wrote:
| Tom Bombadil was in the Fellowship of the Ring, not the
| Hobbit.
|
| The thing about Tom Bombadil is that he was an enigma. He
| wore the ring and did not vanish. Instead, he made the ring
| vanish. It had no power over him. He was just completely
| orthogonal to this struggle, which detracts from its urgency.
| He was neither in the Ralph Bakshi film nor Jackson's, in
| part because it detracts from the dangerous atmosphere.
| chx wrote:
| Oh, Tom is dangerous, you wouldn't believe how much.
|
| https://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html
|
| (and yes, this has been refuted countless times but it's
| really funny)
| gota wrote:
| Warning to those who will click this - that site hijacked
| my browser's "back" button. Had to close the tab and
| about 40 entries in thr History afterwards
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Yeah, Tom is supposed to be older and more fundamental
| that the current antic magics of Elves and Wizards. Like
| an Elemental, except even they are newer than Tom. I see
| him as different in kind. He can live in the dangerous
| forest, because it holds no danger to him.
|
| If he's dangerous, its like the old Gods are dangerous
| because they may be capricious. They may squash something
| because they aren't paying attention to it.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Thanks, been 40 years since I read it.
|
| He's backstory. The Silmarillion was mostly backstory, is
| almost 500 pages, and people read that. They can stand a
| few pages on Tom Bombadil in their adventure story.
|
| And he's so singularly interesting, that I remember him
| particularly. After 40 years. With no help from the movie
| industry for sure.
| titzer wrote:
| Yep, I'm a fan of Tom, too :)
|
| If you get to re-reading it again, just imagine Tom
| singing his songs as if they were country, like Hank
| Williams or Garth Brooks-style. Hilarious!
| tjr wrote:
| Reminds me of the old _Riders Radio Theater_ bit for
| _Garth Sings Darth_. "Act now, and we'll include the
| bonus album, _Darth Sings Garth_! "
| elric wrote:
| From what I can remember from Tolkien's letters, he
| apparently introduced Tom Bombadil as a deliberate enigma.
| He does not belong to any of the known races of Middle
| Earth, nor is he one of the Ainur. I thought he made for a
| nice change of pace in FOTR, a great tool for world
| building.
|
| LOTR is not an action/adventure book, but the Jackson movie
| trilogy is. I was very bitter that some characters like
| Bombadil, Glorfindel, and the Druedain didn't make it into
| the movies. But the movies are not the book, and I doubt
| it's possible to make a LOTR movie that's true to the book.
| galuggus wrote:
| Here are some wonderful illustrations from a Soviet edition of
| 'The Hobbit'
|
| https://mashable.com/2015/12/25/soviet-hobbit/
| macleginn wrote:
| This book was republished several times with the same content
| but with a different colour of the cover each time (white; dark
| blue; something brownish; maybe more). As a child, and I went
| through at least three different colours; I managed to destroy
| or lose a The Hobbit every year or so.
| grawprog wrote:
| I have to say, I prefer the illustrations in that Soviet
| version to the illustrated western version based on that
| cartoon movie. Smaug actually looks like a dragon, instead of a
| giant cat...
| hhjinks wrote:
| I love that the Arkenstone is what Bilbo holds on the cover,
| and not The One Ring.
| hallarempt wrote:
| I had that book -- bought it in Leyden, the Netherlands when I
| was studying Russian. When we have a group of Russian orphans
| staying over in the early nineties, I gave them all my Russian
| books, including this one. It was really good to see them
| reading out of Xobbit to each other every night :-)
|
| Since then, I've forgotten all my Russian...
| CynicusRex wrote:
| Less disappointing than the Game of Thrones finale.
| FpUser wrote:
| >"the costumes and sets are rudimentary, the green-screen effects
| are ludicrous, and many of the scenes look more like a theatre
| production than a feature-length film"
|
| Actually officially it was "telespactakle" - which basically _is
| theatre production_ but made for TV instead of being played on
| live stage. So no surprise here.
| kjrose wrote:
| To be honest. I've been introduced to some translated soviet
| Russian literature of late that is absolutely fascinating.
| Especially in the descriptions of daily life and struggles in the
| soviet cities which do not deviate anywhere near as much as I
| expected from non communist life.
|
| Even these soviet tv shows are slowly coming out and are just
| absolutely fascinating.
| yboris wrote:
| I highly recommend: _One Day in the Life of Inav Denisovich_ by
| Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Day_in_the_Life_of_Ivan_De...
| kjrose wrote:
| The Master and Margarita is likely one of my favorite pieces
| of literature in translation.
| macintux wrote:
| When I was in grade school, the town library had a Soviet
| encyclopedia, in English.
|
| Why or how it came to be there, I have no idea, and I regret
| not inquiring about it, and I also regret not spending more
| time reading it.
| josh_fyi wrote:
| There were deals between the Soviet Union and the United
| States that each one would place its books in school
| libraries of the other. The magazine Soviet Life is the best
| known item placed by this program. Wonder what access Soviet
| children really had to the American equivalent
| Arech wrote:
| Hmm... I (was born in 1982 and lived in Moscow) never heard
| of such deal and American books in libraries...
| billfruit wrote:
| I would recommend Sergei Mihkalkhov's Disobedience Holiday.
| Soviet children's writing was very high quality and at par with
| what was being written in the west. Perhaps the Soviet ones had
| better art too and were well printed and bound as well.
|
| Even the lush Soviet inks had a peculiar inviting smell.
| EGreg wrote:
| The Goblin dub and Yu Gi Oh the Abridged Series are a genre all
| their own. Can someone recommend more awesome dubs series??
| livueta wrote:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_People,_Dear_Reader
|
| I think the whole thing is on Youtube (as video fragments in a
| playlist) but is definitely also available as a torrent.
| imwillofficial wrote:
| "In mother Russia, the ring wears you"
| heletoto wrote:
| I never knew this exists up until now. I'd love to watch this if
| ever there was an English caption available. Russians did an
| excellent job in this theater adaptation.
| txdv wrote:
| It is so terrible that you could make thousands of high class
| meme gifs out of it.
| api wrote:
| I was just thinking that... "Captain, sensors are detecting an
| enormous field of memes ahead!"
| tomcooks wrote:
| If you find it so terrible don't watch it, or try making your
| own for measure
| txdv wrote:
| If you read the entire sentence that I wrote to the end, you
| will understand, that I actually liked it, because is is a
| great source for creating gif memes
| fiftyacorn wrote:
| I picked up a cd version of the BBC radio play with Ian Holm as
| frodo, and bill nighy as Sam which was made around 30-40 years
| ago. Its really good and worth a listen
| [deleted]
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