Taming of the Fire

Awards and recognition

Plot

Main cast

• Kirill Lavrov as Andrei Bashkirtsev
• Ada Rogovtseva as Natalia Bashkirtseva
• Igor Gorbachev as Ognev
• Andrei Popov as Gromov
• Igor Vladimirov as General Anatoly Golovin, Chairman of the State Commission
• Innokenti Smoktunovsky as Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
• Petr Shelokhonov as Mikhail Karelin
• Svetlana Korkoshko as Zoya Konstantinova
• Vsevolod Safonov as Leonid Sretensky
• Zinovi Gerdt as Arthur Matveevich Kartashov, lecturer
• Yevgeny Matveyev as factory director
• Vera Kuznetsova as Bashkirtsev's mother
• Andro Kobaladze as Stalin
• Igor Petrovsky
• Yuri Leonidov
• Ivan Ryzhov as Alekseich
• Valentina Khmara as Korolev's secretary
• Galina Samokhina
• Vladimir Deyanov
• Vadim Spiridonov as Ivan Flyorov
• Nikolai Barmin
• Galiks Kolchitsky as Igor Kurchatov
• Vitali Belyakov
• Lavr Lyndin
• Georgi Shevtsov
• Yevgeny Steblov as Innokenti Bashkirtsev
• Anatoly Chelombitko as Gagarin

  Admissions and DVD sales

• 1972 theatrical admissions : 27,600,000
• 1972 theatrical admissions in Europe : unknown
• 1991 — 2011 video and DVD sales in Russia and Europe : over 10 million copies

  Production

• Mosfilm studio was the main production company. Additional production assistance was provided by the Red Army and Gagarin Space Center in Moscow, by Baykonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and by OKB 1 and OKB 3 missile industries in central Russia and in Ukraine.
• All actors and crew had to pass background checks to get clearance for filming at Cosmodrome Baykonur and Gagarin Space Center in 1970 and 1971.
• Footages of Baykonur Kosmodrome in Kazakhstan and of the Soviet Space Center in Moscow are adding authenticity to the film, but most of the footages had not been released to the public. The original director's cut had 5500 meters of film length, but then it was shown to Brezhnev and Politbureau and was censored before the public release in 1972; the film was reduced to 4553m and ran 166 minutes. Currently available copies run only 158 minutes.

  Comments

• Epic film about the Soviet space program. Loosely based on bio of the top-secret Russian rocket designer Sergei Korolev. Film was released 6 years after Korolev's death, still the Soviet censorship covered his real name. Other characters are also based on real people, but their names were top secret in the Soviet Union. Today astronautics.com gives some real names as well as the accurate list of actors in the original cast from the German opening night booklet. Soviet censorship ordered several scenes to be deleted, so many characters were altered and reduced, which caused changes in film's opening and closing credits.
• The film was originally planned for release on April 12, 1971, the 10th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, but the film was banned by censorship. It was cut and shortened several times until it was seen by the Defence Minister Ustinov and Brezhnev, which led to further censorship of several scenes related to rocket science and politics. What's left of the film today is a patchwork of scenes of rocket launches, technical discussions mixed with politics, and a fictitious love story. Also fictitious are scenes showing Soviet political leaders and the Red Army Commanders in their nervous discussions about arms race and technology, showing the paranoia of the Cold War.
• Censorship and political influences are evident in the film, in some parts the editing is abrupt and hectic, because the banned footages of film were cut out and destroyed, so it affected characters development and caused incongruent cuts. Soviet political censorship dominated over the filmmakers. Filming locations were top secret in the Soviet Union, such as the Baykonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and the Gagarin Space Center near Moscow. Military censorship watched the secret equipment and rocket science machinery that were not allowed to be seen, so several scenes with good acting were cut out and destroyed. The total length of destroyed footages was about 1200–1500 meters of film, so the film was reduced by more than one hour.
• Cinematographers expressed their regrets that several beautiful scenes on location at Baykonur Cosmodrome were deleted and destroyed by the Soviet censorship, so the original director's cut was losing scene after scene until it was cleared in a much shorter version for public release in April 1972. The original 1971 version of the film ran almost four hours, but it was reduced down to two and a half hours, before international release. The actors and filmmakers were still happy, that after two years of work, the film was allowed for release, albeit in a shorter version.
• The film shows pride in such events as the launch of "Sputnik" in 1957, and the flight of Gagarin, the first man in space, in 1961. But in 1969, four American astronauts walked on the Moon, and two more landed there in February 1971, leaving Russia behind in the space race. Then the Soviet leadership released this film. The space race and the arms race are shown here from the Soviet side. Political figures of Stalin and the nuclear scientist Kurchatov are portrayed with careful exaggeration. Other historic figures, like Tsiolkovsky and Gagarin fit well, albeit the fictitious parallel story of the main character's wife has no chemistry. Cinematography with two cameras is impressive, and music score by Andrei Petrov is memorable.
• The State Prize of Russia was awarded to actor Lavrov for his performance in the leading role. The film also received several awards at various festivals in Europe and Russia, including the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Award.