"They fought for their country": actors and roles, photo

In the 70 years that have passed since the Victory Day, a lot of film works, including art works, have been shot about the Great Patriotic War. Among them, a special place is taken by Sergey Bondarchuk's film "They fought for their Motherland". Actors who starred in this film at the 16th Panama Film Festival (1976) received a prize for the best performance of the roles of soldiers. It was an unprecedented case of awarding the award immediately to 27 actors. However, such a decision of the jury was quite natural, since each of the winners played its role with incredible skill, and among them it would be difficult to single out one.

About the film

Nobel laureate Mikhail Sholokhov created several memorable works about the war. Among them, a special place is occupied by the novel "They Fought for Their Country", over which the writer worked from 1942 to 1969.

In the year of the 30th anniversary of the Great Victory, director Sergei Bondarchuk took up his screen version, in which the most famous stars of Soviet cinema were invited. The film turned out to be unusually piercing and humane.

Scale battle scenes in the picture are replaced by everyday scenes, and dialogs allow to penetrate into the psychology of the characters, each of which was torn from the usual routine routine and became the defender of his country.

Throughout the work on the painting Bondarchuk consulted with Sholokhov himself, who began to write his novel, so to speak, hot on the heels, after visiting the arena of hostilities. This explains the documentary nature of the film, which was noted by all the front-line soldiers who attended its premiere.

What is the secret of the success of the film "They fought for their Motherland"? Actors and roles in it are picked up incredibly accurately. Speaking modern language, the brilliant director could not have created such a masterpiece, if not for a successful casting. After all, every artist that the viewer sees from the screen, as if playing himself, with his personal experiences, longing for peaceful life and the desire to take revenge on the enemy who destroyed the familiar world.

Vasily Shukshin

When they recall the film "They fought for their Motherland", the actors in which they played on the edge of their abilities, the image of Peter Lopakhin is first and foremost called. This was the last role of Vasily Shukshin, who died while filming. Instead, Igor Efimov was invited to voice the picture. Shukshin masterfully played a cynic, which, however, is not alien to heroism. The image turned out so truthful and devoid of gloss, which in the Soviet cinema was given to the defenders of the Fatherland, which was remembered for a long time by the viewer.

Vyacheslav Tikhonov

After the famous role of Stirlitz in the cult "Seventeen Moments of Spring", it was difficult for viewers to perceive a favorite artist in a worn tunic and with a face covered with a thick layer of dirt. However, a few minutes after the beginning of the movie, it became clear that it was he who was to play Nikolai Streltsov in the film "They fought for their Motherland". Actors who worked on the same site together with Tikhonov, in particular Vasily Shukshin, made an excellent ensemble with him. They complement each other and form a holistic image of the soldier of that Great War.

In addition, it is the scene where the wounded Streltsov tries to crawl out of the trench to go along with his comrades in attack on certain death, is one of the strongest in the picture.

Nonna Mordyukova

One of the most significant roles in the film is the image of Natalia Stepanovna. Prior to this work Nonna Mordyukova played in the movie a lot of roles of real Russian women, able to endure on their shoulders any hardship and at the same time retained the ability to love. In the picture Bondarchuk Natalia Stepanovna is in sight Lopakhin, who even in the war did not lose interest in the opposite sex. However, his courtship does not lead to anything, and he is forced to retreat, ashamed of the heroine Mordyukova, waiting for her husband, who is in the hospital.

Yury Nikulin

In the film, this artist, known for his comedic roles and work in the circus, performed in a completely different role. Moreover, almost all the actors of the film "They Fought for Their Country" treated Yuriy Nikulin in a special way. After all, the artist was a veteran of the Second World War and was rightfully proud of his medals "For Courage", "For Victory over Germany" and "For the Defense of Leningrad". In the film, he embodied the image of private Nekrasov - an ordinary Russian man who, in a moment of danger to the Motherland, becomes a soldier and, clenching his teeth, goes to the enemy.

Andrei Rostotsky

In the film Bondarchuk most of the already well- known actors starred . "They fought for their Motherland" brought together real stars. However, the picture brought fame and at the time still very young artist Andrei Rostotsky. Being a schoolboy, he attended classes at the creative studio of Sergei Bondarchuk in VGIK, and the master invited him to appear in the role of corporal Kochetygov. In the picture, the hero of Rostotsky perishes by hitting an enemy tank. At the same time, the young actor performs the first trick in his career, which to this day could not be repeated by any other stuntman.

Sergey Bondarchuk

All the actors who shot in the film "They fought for their Motherland" the actors subsequently admired the work of the director on the site. Moreover, Bondarchuk played in the picture the role of Private Ivan Zvyagintsev, who before the war was a combiner and can not calmly look at the damage caused by the war to the farmers. He participates in the two most powerful scenes: when a thin nurse takes him out of the battlefield, and in a hospital. In his last partner is Innokenty Smoktunovsky, brilliantly played the role of a surgeon. Being a former soldier-front-line soldier, Bondarchuk gave his hero the features that he saw in people with whom he went on the attack in the years of his youth.

George Burkov

In the painting, the artist played the role of Private Alexander Kopytovsky. Burkov was a close friend of Shukshin, so the joint scenes of the actors who sympathize with each other in the film look very convincing. In both there is nothing heroic, as well as the desire to die for the idea. However, the enemy who invaded their huge house, whose name is the Motherland, causes them hatred and makes them go under the bullets in spite of everything and everything.

Now you know who was in the picture "They fought for their Motherland". Actors, photos of which were familiar to every Soviet person, played their best roles in this film. They managed to truthfully show the image of a simple soldier, thanks to which the Great Victory was achieved.