Coordinates of Death
Coordinates of Death Координаты смерти | |
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Directed by | Samvel Gasparov |
Screenplay by | Aleksandr Lapshin Hoang Tich Chi |
Production companies | |
Release date |
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Running time | 78 minutes with overture, entr'acte, and outro music |
Countries | USSR Vietnam |
Languages | Russian Vietnamese |
Coordinates of Death (alternative title Target for Death ; Russian: Координаты смерти, Vietnamese: Tọa độ chết) is a 1985 film by Samvel Gasparov (USSR) and (Vietnam). The film, which involved both Soviet and Vietnamese movie makers, is mostly about American brutality during the Vietnam War.
Plot[]
Events depicted in the movie unfold in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Americans are bombing Vietnamese towns and villages, breaking into households, killing women and children. All ships of the European merchant fleet have already left the coast of North Vietnam, but the Soviet dry cargo ship Chelyabinsk refuses to leave Vietnamese shores despite a United States military ultimatum. A few days later the ship is sunk and surviving Soviet sailors join a caravan of Vietnamese insurgents moving along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The plot concerns the visit of an American actress to war-torn North Vietnam. At the height of the Vietnam War, actress Kate Francis (a cinematic representation of Jane Fonda) travels along with the resistance fighters and witnesses first-hand the destruction heaped upon the Vietnamese people by the American forces. Before returning to the US in order to deliver the truth about the current state of matters to the wider international community, she organizes a press conference to relate all that she has seen and to literally sing the praises of the Vietnamese people.
Meanwhile, in Haiphong, Kate's Vietnamese friend Mai introduces her to her husband, combat engineer Phong, who has recently returned home from the Soviet Union aboard the Chelyabinsk. The CIA is preparing to detonate a bomb in Haiphong port, but friends manage to prevent it.
Cast[]
- Aleksandr Galibin as Krutin
- as Mai
- as Phong
- as Kate Francis
- Yury Nazarov as Captain Shukhov
- Daniil Netrebin
- Rudolf Pankov
- Nguyen Huy Cong
- Hoang Uan
- Thu An as the old mother
- Mai Chau as the woman carrying a baby
Backstage[]
Filming took place in Hanoi and the most picturesque Vietnamese landscapes, such as the Central Highlands, Halong Bay and Haiphong. The film features a lot of high-budget scenes, such as downed American pilots, aircraft crashed into the sea, burned villages and mass battle-scenes. A lot of Soviet specialists worked in Vietnam portraying American military aviators.
Soundtrack[]
Theme songs of the film, which appear at the beginning and end of the movie, are "The Spring" (composed by Pham Minh Tuan) and "The land of Vietnamese" (an anti-war song, which Kate Francis performed in the movie, though voiced by the famous Russian singer Larisa Dolina).
Details[]
- Original music : Yevgeny Krylatov
- Cinematography : Thu Dan, Sergey Filippov
- Film editing : Tatyana Malyavina, Nguyen Thi Ninh
- Production design : Pyotr Pashkevich, Dao Duc
- Sound effects : Boris Koreshkov, Nguyen Quoc Can
See also[]
- (1984, film)
- (1987, East German-Vietnamese film)
References[]
This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (May 2011) |
External links[]
- Coordinates of Death at IMDb
- The Spring (Performed by Cẩm Vân)
- 1985 films
- Soviet films
- Russian-language films
- Gorky Film Studio films
- Films directed by Samvel Gasparov
- 1980s war films
- Vietnamese films
- Vietnamese-language films
- Vietnam War films
- Soviet Union–Vietnam relations
- Soviet multilingual films
- 1980s multilingual films
- Vietnamese multilingual films