100 Days Before The Command
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: D Film: B-
Even with the new openness of Glasnost, there were still
films that were a dangerous thing to make in the Soviet Union. Just before the superpower collapsed,
Hussein Erkenov decided to take a look into the homoeroticism of the Soviet Red
Army in 100 Days before The Command (1990), one of the last films the
country ever banned. It was bold enough
to consider that gays whose existence was denied were always there and that he
decided “don’t ask, don’t tell” was a bad cinematic policy.
The film subtly attacks the soon-to-collapse Communist
system and how the Army guts out everyone it takes in for a dead ideology. Five men focused on have more interest in
each other and the initially unsuspecting fellow soldiers than each other. Instead of a corny XXX gay film, this is a
political indictment, and uses its visuals over its surprisingly minimal
dialogue to tell its story.
Camera shots help to tell the story that by the very nature
of being, each of these men is a potential object of sexual desire for Gay
consideration (no women appear in the film) and that they have to be naked
sooner or later under these circumstances.
The party ideology of Socialism and living your life for the state just
crumbles to individual needs, and not just homosexual ones. After Little Vera and how their cinema
was changing in subtle ways, this much lesser known film is as key, simply by
being a great slap in the face to a system that deserved to die.
The full screen, color image is a bit faded and scratched
up, but this is well shot without being vulgar or idiotic. The editing is also solid, while despite the
short 70 minutes running time, the film offers a well-rounded look at
militarism that adds up. This would
probably not been possible without Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket
(1987), and uses the narrow vision composition to best effect. The sound is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono only, do
not expect great sonics, but that is the original sound and is passable. Sadly, there are no extras.
How Erkenov got real soldiers to be in this film is
remarkable, but one film that came to mind immediately was Claire Denis’ Beau
Travail, which came out a year later.
That French film (reviewed elsewhere on this site), was more
successfully distributed and got more critical accolades for a slightly longer
and far more pretentious film about many of the same subjects, even if it was
about the French Foreign Legion. Denis,
giving us a supposedly female point of view, makes the men and their eroticism
as she sees it. This has the appeal of
the cold mountains behind them and the film is ultimately a wreck. By comparison, 100 Days Before The
Command suggests everything that film could have been, and is more
successful in the direction it takes.
Too bad it was not longer, but this is a key, late Soviet film that
would not have been possible prior to 1987 for a few reasons. It is also a legitimate War genre film worth
seeing.
- Nicholas Sheffo
