Kidnapping Caucasian Style, or Shurik's New Adventures

I found many similarities between this film and Western comedies. Most notably, the three thugs hired to kidnap Nina reminded me of a mixture between The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy. I would be interested to learn if Leonid Gaidai had seen any of their movies. The fattest of the three resembled Oliver Hardy right down to his tiny mustache. The thin - and arguably most goofy of the three - hired criminals reminded me of a mixture between Stan Laurel and Curly Howard in that he made a lot of high pitched silly noises and extremely nonsensical comments. Perhaps, the last of the three bumbling henchmen was similar to Moe Howard. He tried to act tough and his failed attempts at professionalism usually were humerous to witness. One particular instance of this was when he was dictating to his thin counterpart and scratching his foot. Also, Shurik reminded me of the type of character that Ben Stiller would play. He was a dorky kind of guy that meant well and was thrown into an outrageous situation that was largely out of his control. I could easily see Shurik in a movie similar to Meet the Parents.

However, with the other two main characters of this movie - Nina's uncle and Comrade Saakhov - I did not draw any comparisons to Western movie characters because I was too busy thinking about the cultural implications of the things that they were saying. I immediately was struck by the fact that they were Muslim. This was the first movie that we have seen were religion was explicitly mentioned. They often talked about giving 'thanks to Allah' or something along those lines. I actually was able to grasp how large the Soviet Union was because of this. Usually, I always just thought of the Soviet Union in terms of the Northern European parts of the country. However, the fact that Muslims were in this film made me realize just how far the Soviet Union's border was. I guess, I felt this movie did a nice job of displaying the diversity of the Soviet Union (much like Circus).

Apparently, the customs of marriage bore the brunt of the jokes in this film. I would guess that many of the people in the Caucasus region had practiced the concepts of arranged marriages and dowries. This movie pointed out the absurdity of those two traditions. Comrade Saakhov and Nina's uncle clearly represented the 'old guard' that many of the elderly people in the Caucasus region would have agreed with. However, the mere idea of a young, talented girl like Nina marrying an elderly, boring government official like Comrade Saakhov was laughable. Also, I found the sequence where Nina's uncle and Comrade Saakhov were arguing over the dowry hilarious. They highlighted the absurdity of the notion that a value could be placed on a human being (as evidenced by the fact that Nina was given to Comrade Saakhov for chickens). Rather, this movie seemed to promote the idea of choice in regard to love. Nina obviously wanted to choose her husband for herself.

I found irony in the fact that the chief antagonist of this film was a government official. Comrade Saakhov was portrayed as something of a fool, although he managed to do clever things from time to time (such as getting Shurik sent to the rehab clinic). He was also depicted as scheming and undesirable. Comrade Saakhov abused his power to try and get the girl that he wanted. I would go so far as to say that this movie made fun of government officials. I was surprised that the government would have allowed a movie to be shown with a character like Comrade Saakhov.

Still, Saakhov fit in perfectly with the slapstick humor of this movie. All of the situations and lines were supported by the goofy music. I almost felt like as much of a dufus as some of the characters were while this movie's music was playing. Silly music was necessary to compliment the antics of the characters. Perhaps, the most memorable part of this movie for me was when the three bumbling henchmen brought food in to Nina and started dancing with her. They literally appeared out of thin air. The daffy music enhanced silly situations like this for me.