Night Watch (2004 film)
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| Night Watch (Nochnoy Dozor) | |
|---|---|
| File:4864 13.jpg International poster for Night Watch | |
| Directed by | Timur Bekmambetov |
| Written by | Novel: Sergei Lukyanenko Screenplay: Timur Bekmambetov and Laeta Kalogridis (English adaptation), Sergei Lukyanenko and Timur Bekmambetov (original Russian screenplay) |
| Produced by | Konstantin Ernst Anatoli Maksimov |
| Starring | Konstantin Khabensky Mariya Poroshina |
| Distributed by |  Gemini Film Fox Searchlight Pictures |
Release dates |  July 8, 2004 September 2, 2005 October 7, 2005 October 11, 2005 February 17, 2006 |
Running time | 115 min. |
| Languages | Russian (all versions) English (int'l.-version voice-overs) |
| Budget | US$4.2 million |
Night Watch (Template:Lang-ru) is a Russian fantasy action thriller film, made in 2004 by the Kazakhstan-born film director Timur Bekmambetov. It is loosely based on The Night Watch, and is the first part of a trilogy, followed by Day Watch and an unnamed third film (the titles of the remaining novels are Twilight Watch and Final Watch) which will be recast. Several Internet resources list the third film in the series as having a working title of Dusk Watch[1][2][3][4].
Plot
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Living among normal humans are the "Others", humans who possess various supernatural powers. They are divided up into the forces of light and the forces of dark, who signed a truce several centuries ago to end a devastating battle. Ever since, the forces of light govern the night while the day belongs to their dark opponents. In modern day Moscow, the dark Others roam the night as vampires and other evil nightmares, while a "Night Watch" of light forces (among them Anton, a kind of seer and the movie's main character) try to control them and limit their outrages. The obligatory condition of the truce for both sides is that the two powers (The Light and The Dark) maintain the balance and neither of them should dominate the other one, or else the fragile harmony of the world is broken. However, there's a prophecy saying of the Great Other who is destined to immerse the world into the Dark. The story continues in an episode set in a modern-day Moscow that features the way Anton Gorodetsky becomes a seer. Further, the narration is moved 12 years later where Anton meets a woman with a kind of magic vortex (visible only by the Others) whirling over her head and bringing about misfortune to everybody within its range...and a boy who, if he is ever to become the Other, might possess a great power. The first side to attract the boy would find itself in the position to displace the balance and gain an advantage over the other.
Production
The film was the first big-budget Russian fantasy film and one of the first blockbusters made after the collapse of the Soviet film industry. The film was produced by Channel One, the government-owned TV channel, with a budget of US$4.2 million.[5] It was shot in an 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
Part of the challenge for such a big-budget fantasy film was creating hundreds of visual effects (VFX) shots to which a modern audience is accustomed. 16 Russian VFX studios and several freelancers were used, each chosen for their individual strengths. Many shots were created by different artists across different time zones, using the Internet to share data and images, mostly using Windows NT workstations.[6]
Release and reception
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After a first appearance at the Moscow Film Festival on June 27, 2004, it went on general cinema release across the CIS on July 8, 2004. The film was extremely successful, becoming the highest-grossing Russian release ever, grossing US$16.7 million in Russia alone, thus making more money in Russia than The Lord of the Rings. The second part of the trilogy, Day Watch was released across the CIS on January 1, 2006, and the third part is scheduled for release in 2007. There is also a TV series in production.
The film attracted the attention of Fox Searchlight Pictures, which offered to finance the third part and bought the U.S. distribution rights for the whole trilogy. As a consequence, the third part will be filmed in the United States, likely with other actors speaking English instead of Russian. [1]
International release
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One year after the Russian release, the international distribution began. Other than a London premiere at the Odeon West End as part of the Frightfest horror film festival, that screened amid heavy security on the August 28, 2005[7], the first European country outside CIS was Spain where it was released on September 2, 2005. By mid October it had been released in most European countries, and on February 17, 2006 it had a limited release in the United States, followed by a full release on March 3. By February 13, 2006 (i.e. before the U.S. release) it had grossed US$32 million.
The "international version" of the film debuted in the United Kingdom. In the prologue and epilogue, the Russian voice-over has been dubbed in English, but for the rest of the film features stylized subtitles appearing in odd places around the screen, often animated to emphasise or complement the action. For example, in a scene in which Yegor is being called by a Dark vampire, he is in a pool and the camera is underwater. The caption appears as blood red text that dissolves as blood would in water. In another scene, as a character walks across the scene from left to right, the caption is revealed as his body crosses the screen. In addition, many of the scenes that were present in the Russian theatrical release were omitted, while, at the same time, some scenes were recut or added. The International version is shorter by 10 minutes. Overall, it helped to make the film's plot clearer than it was in the original theatrical version, though many purists argue that the deletions subtract from the film. The DVD was released in the UK on April 24, 2006.
Some of the changes to the International version:
- The prologue of the international cut is in English and is more detailed in describing the concept of the "Others".
- Anton is a "seer" in the international cut, who gets visions at various places in the film.
- There are some flashbacks to the apartment of the witch Darya, where Simeon and Bear explain to Anton who the Others are.
- The character "Ignat" who was played by Gosha Kutsenko has been cut out completely. In the Russian cut Ignat is a Light Incubus capable of seducing any woman. Geser sends Simeon to fetch Ignat in order to seduce Svetlana so that she would "relax" and lose her vortex of damnation. As Svetlana runs out of coffee, she goes to a night supermarket. Ignat meets her and accompanies her to her apartment. However, Svetlana is able to see his intentions and he fails.
- Most of the subplot inside of the plane is missing from the international cut.
- Most of the dialogues have been redubbed to make the plot more convenient to the international audience. Most redubs were done in scenes with Gesser and Olga.
- A clip from the TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer is added in the U.S. version, involving Dracula and Buffy. In the original cut, it was a clip from the Russian children's show Domovoy (from an episode where a titular character went up against vampires).
- The song "Nochnoi Dozor" by the Russian band Uma2rman in the Credits has been replaced by an English-language song. In the U.S. version, it is "Fearless" by The Bravery, in other international releases it is "Shatter" by Feeder.
Novel vs. film
Although the movie had one of the biggest budgets in the history of Russian filmmaking, there were still restraints on its content, especially given the length of the original three-hundred page, three-part book. Some of the changes made were small and insignificant; others significantly altered the nature of the plot. So, the film doesn't precisely follow the contents of the book - rather, the blockbuster is composed of different episodes, found in both "Night Watch" and "Day Watch" books by Sergey LuKjianenko. In the film certain scenes were reassessed, the plot line (as a chain of episodes and logic links between them) has been significantly modified. The major changes are listed below.
Major differences
- In the movie, the use of spells, power amulets and shapeshifting was significantly diminished compared to the book The Night Watch. The Twilight, which was an important background element in the book, was barely used in the movie. The book deals with the technique of entering the Twilight by raising your shadow, the different levels within it, etc. The movie's director explained that he never liked magic, so all magical aspects were severely downplayed.
- While the movie is focused more on the action of the novel, the book is much more thoughtful. The novel focuses on the moral ambiguities the Night Watch is forced to face in a situation where it cannot openly oppose the Dark and are forced to run intrigues which could hurt its own members. The original version–produced by Channel One in Russia–attempts to touch on these thoughtful issues, but the international cut (also known as the Fox version) has neglected these points through editing.
- In the movie, each Other joins either the Light or the Dark through a free choice. In the book, it's more a matter of their own nature and for some people how they're feeling when they first enter the Twilight.
- The opening scene of the movie wasn't in the book (it's taken from Day Watch), nor was it ever mentioned or alluded to. In the movie, Anton Gorodetskiy visited a witch in hopes that she would use magic to get his wife back. In the book, this incident took place in the beginning of Day Watch, the second installment of the tetralogy, and also the witch's customer was not Anton, but a woman called Natasha who wanted to get her husband back.
- In the movie, Yegor is Anton's son. In the book, they aren't related (Sergei Lukyanenko explained that this change was a result of a "glitch" in the script). In the fourth novel Last Watch, Yegor tells Anton that he had a dream in which he was Anton's son and experienced events from the movie.
- In the movie, Yegor is the Great One whose coming was foretold, who will shift the balance of the final battle between Light and Dark. In the book, there is no such prophecy and the boy has mediocre potential. He's just a pawn the Dark put into the game to distract Anton from Svetlana, the true focus of the struggle, who really does have incredible powers.
- In the movie, Alyssa showed Yegor and Anton that back in 1992, Anton was willing to kill Yegor (who was an unborn child at the time). This effectively led Yegor to choose the Dark. In the book, Alyssa forced Anton to tell Yegor the whole truth. This forced Anton to reveal that Yegor was manipulated by the Light Others for the sake of the greater good. Yegor leaves the roof, disgusted with both the Light and the Dark. For the moment, his future is uncertain (he remains absolutely neutral). (But is recognized as dark in night watch book 2 "among my own kind" where the maverick is drawn to him as one of his victims, though he does eventually sustain a neutral bias.)
- In the movie, Zavulon's name seems to be very famous even among Light ones, in the book Anton doesn't learn it until he meets him speaking with Geser.
- In the book the leader of the daywatch was Zabulon, although all descriptions on the internet talk of him as Zavulon, no matter referring to the book or the film. This is probably due to the fact that the Cyrillic character B is pronounced "v".
- In the movie, Geser and Zavulon are the leaders of their respective Watches. In the books, they are the heads of the branches in/around Russia.
Product placement in the film
- The movie seems to have been sponsored by Nescafe, as the brand appears at certain moments.
- Some examples of this are when Anton is coming around, after being healed by Boris Geser in the office. Boris is making a cup of coffee and a big tub of Nescafe is zoomed in on.
- The second appearance is when the rivet off the airplane falls into the cup of coffee...the cup is bright red with the Nescafe logo on it.
- The third appearance is when the checkout assistant in the supermarket is unable to scan an item. The item is a big tub of Nescafe coffee.
- Nescafe is blatantly advertised in the supermarket.
- When Ignat scans the Nescafe into the till for the shop assistant, he says "a good taste, a good beginning" - the Nescafe tag line.
- To find about events happening in Moscow, a character uses the Rambler Russian web portal.
- A Nokia mobile phone is visible.
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (June 2007) |
- In a behind-the-scenes article, author Sergey Lukyanenko explained that the filmmakers originally wanted to depict the Gloom closer to the way it was in the book. However, after the Fellowship of the Ring movie came out, the filmmakers realized that the original take on the Gloom was strikingly similar to the shadowy realm Frodo entered every time he put on the ring. Thus, the depiction of the Gloom was altered to avoid accusations of plagiarism.
See also
External links
- Night Watch (Nochnoy dozor) at IMDb
- Day Watch (Dnevnoy dozor) at IMDb
- Dusk Watch (Nochnoy dozor 3) at IMDb
- Trailer at Apple.com
- Synopsis at FilmFantastic
- The New York Times: From Russia, with Blood and Shape-Shifters
- Trailer and Screenshots
Official sites
Fan Sites
- Virtual and real world of Watches - site about Others in Russia
- Into the Gloom: A Night Watch Fan Site operated by fans
- www.lightordark.com: A community for Night Watch Fans - owned by Twentieth Century Fox
- Nocny Patrol: Polish Night Watch Serwis
- World of Patrols - Czech center of others
References
- ^ foxsearchlight.com article referencing the trilogy
- ^ IMDb entry for "Nochnoy Dozor 3"
- ^ BBC.co.uk article referencing the trilogy.
- ^ MTV.com article referencing the trilogy
- ^ Box office business at IMDb
- ^ Alain Bielik (February 17, 2006). ""Night Watch: Cold Hard VFX from Russia"". VFXWorld.com. Retrieved 2007-04-26.
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