The winner of the Russian State Prize for the works of cinema-2013 was "Legend No. 17", dedicated to Valery Kharlamov, one of the brightest hockey players of the 70s. He played the famous striker of CSKA and the Union team Danil Kozlovsky, for the sake of filming, even learned to relatively well own the club and the puck. But Kozlovsky is not the only famous actor who has filmed a world-class sports star.
Champions champions
The Soviet Union could be proud of not only regular successes at the Olympics and world championships, but also the appearance of the first feature film about the legendary athlete. Back in 1957, “The Wrestler and the Clown” was released, telling about, in many ways, not so much the starry as the tragic life of the wrestler Ivan Poddubny. It was played by Stanislav Chekan. In 1985, Kazakhfilm created another film about the unofficial world champion of the late XIX - early XX centuries Poddubny, called "Know Ours". But he did not receive much attention. But the main role was played by Dmitry Zolotukhin, who became famous in the dilogy about Peter I.
The story of such a controversial figure as a wrestler, one of whose nicknames was "Ivan Zhelezny", was continued in Russian cinema. "Champion of Champions" in the 2014 film "Poddubny" was Mikhail Porechenkov. One of the masterpieces of Soviet drama cinema of the 70s was recognized as the “White Snow of Russia”, dedicated to the departed undefeated chess king Alexander Alekhine. He did not go unnoticed either because the role of Alekhine was played by another Alexander - Mikhailov, who became famous after the painting "Love and Pigeons".
Beaver One, Beaver Two
Several films combined with the modern film by such a famous character in the world of big sports as Vsevolod Bobrov turned out to be peculiar forerunners of “Legend No. 17”. In the first, shot in the 64th by Vladimir Basov and named “Hockey Players” without frills, the role of prima hockey and football of the post-war years, in the film - Duganov, was played by Vyacheslav Shalevich.
In the 91st Vsevolod Bobrov in the picture "My best friend is General Vasily, the son of Joseph" will play Boris Shcherbakov. After 22 years, the same Shcherbakov will play the role of father Valery Kharlamov in "No. 17". And the great Bobrov "will be" Alexander Yakovlev, whose first role was the embassy guard in the cult television series of the 70s about Stirlitz.
In addition to Shcherbakov and Yakovlev, Oleg Menshikov also took part in the Legend, whose role was Anatoly Tarasov, the head coach of the national team. North American NHL stars Bobby Clarke and Phil Esposito were played by Russian American Andrei Runzo and German Otto Goetz. And a large team of Russian actors less known than Menshikov and Kozlovsky “performed the duties” of the players of the Union team of those years - Vladislav Tretyak (Alexander Pakhomov), Alexander Gusev (Alexander Lobanov), Alexander Maltsev (Denis Serdyukov), Vladimir Petrov (Artem Fedotov), Boris Mikhailov (Timur Efremenkov). Interestingly, in the role of Alexander Ragulin, his son and namesake appeared on the site.
From Kharlamov to Kovalchuk
By the way, “Legend” is considered a kind of response to “Valery Kharlamov. Extra time” with Alexei Chadov. Coaches-winners of the national team of different years Tarasova and Viktor Tikhonov in “Extra time” were played by Vladimir Sterzhakov and Vladimir Kuznetsov. And the Tretyak, Mikhailov and Petrov are Dmitry Arosiev, Kirill Karo and Sergey Zharkov. It is worth recalling the “Hockey Games" of the super-72 between the national teams of the USSR and Canada. Young and age-old Bobrov was shown in it, respectively, by Sergey Larin and Leonid Timtsunik, Tarasova - Mikhail Filippov and Sergey Gazarov, and Kharlamova and Tretyak - Gleb Isakov and Andrey Voroshilov.
The triumph of the Russian national team at the Olympics in Sochi inspired the actor Dmitry Dyuzhev, a well-known from the Brigade series, to create a film with the winning title Champions. The director decided to make his heroes immediately seven famous Russian athletes, winners and champions of the Olympic Games and world championships. Andrei Smolyakov and Mark Bogatyrev turned out to be the biathlon father and son with the same names Nikolay Kruglov in the Dyuzhev tape. Skaters Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze - Tatyana Arntgolts and Konstantin Kryukov. Snowboarder Ekaterina Ilyukhina was played by Taisiya Vilkova, and skater Svetlana Zhurova was played by her namesake Khodchenkova. Finally, the role of the idol of thousands of young Russian hockey players Ilya Kovalchuk went to ex-Kharlamov - Alexei Chadov.
