Genres

Visitors Review

2012-05-25 13:00:30

best of its era

This is an amazing film. Direct, in-your-face, gut-busting funny with memorable characters and lines. nothing else of its era comes close. A young Colin Firth captivates, Alfred Molina just amazing as well as Alexandra Pigg and female costar. The Brits do it best, uncompromising and honest.

Lee Eisenberg 2012-05-25 07:07:41

Go Liverpool!

The opening scene in "Letter to Brezhnev" shows Soviet sailors Sergei(Alfred Molina) and Peter (Peter Firth) sighting Liverpool andrecognizing it as the Beatles' hometown. When this happens, you knowthat you're in for something neat, and your assumptions get confirmedwith what happens in Liverpool. Sergei and Peter have a brief flingwith working-class Liverpudlian women Elaine (Alexandra Pigg) andTeresa (Margi Clarke).But, since this is the Cold War, the Russian guys obviously can't stayin England very long, and so they quickly have to return home. ButElaine can't forget them, and goes so far as to write Leonid Brezhnev aletter asking if she can come to the USSR to meet them. Needless tosay, this isn't too popular with the British authorities, who decide toquestion Elaine about it.This is a most interesting look not only at working-class England, butalso at the human aspects of the Cold War. Everyone in the movie does avery good job, especially Molina. I'm eager to see how he does in "TheDa Vinci Code".

tjlisson 2012-05-21 05:05:38

Naive Fantasy Blinded By Wishful Thinking

Ah, but if only it were realistic. Because if anyone knows anythingabout the way the Soviet Union dealt with sailors in those days, theregime would never have let these two guys go off by themselves onshore, not even for a short while. I hope no one has to explain to youwhy. And even if this sweet young thing did get her chance to get aletter through to Brezhnev, he would surely be wondering how thissailor was able to free himself long enough to get into this situationin the first place, and I can tell you he wouldn't like it — even ifthe propaganda value might otherwise be useful.But of course, romantic notions of life in the Soviet Union were notexactly rare at the time — especially, perhaps, in a very depressedplace like Liverpool in the '80's. I wished Elaine luck, but it's kindof like watching one of those old Science Fiction movies and hoping thealiens and the earthlings can learn how to get along, because you knowthat in real life you don't really have to or get to.

2012-05-20 16:47:55

Letter to Brezhnev

This review is from: Letter To Brezhnev [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - New Zealand ] (DVD) This is still one of my favorite 80's movies. A great story about true love and unselfish friendship.

StokeBlokeUK 2012-05-12 11:22:11

Bawdy, working-class "love story" set in Liverpool

Frank Clarke is my favourite writer of British Films (Letter To Brezhnev,Blonde Fist, and I have just found out The Fruit Machine.) The film issetin Modern day working class Liverpool, where two friends Teresa (the oneandonly Margi Clarke) and Elaine (Alexandra Pigg) hit the town one night andmeet two Russian Sailors. Elaine falls head over heels in love and whenthesailors set sail Elaine writes a letter to president Brezhnev of Russiaregarding her love and the need to see him again as she believes she isbeing prevented by the British authorities. It is not however a soppylovestory, fast paced and again quite true to working class life in Britain inthe 1980's. A Film Four production again, who have made the best lowbudgetBritish Films of the last twenty years.

2012-05-11 19:16:14

All you need is Love, love. Love is all you need

This review is from: Letter to Brezhnev (DVD) I have wanted to write this review for a long time. In fact for over twenty years since I first saw this wonderful film I have wanted to share my views with someone. Now, living in the United States where the film is only available on VHS, I am able to write it.This is a lovely little love story but despite that I absolutely love it. I used the film in economics and sociology lectures to illustrate a number of different socio-economic and historic processes but throughout this is an unashamed love story.The backdrop for the movie is the almost unemployed port of Liverpool, once the gateway to the West, and now an almost industrial museum set against the backdrop of the Liver building and Paddy's wigwam. The time is the early 80's where the decimation of manufacturing industry through exposure to competitive economic global forces through the policies of the Labour government under Chancellor Healey, followed by the Thatcher government under Chancellor Howe, resulted in mushrooming structural unemployment. As the characters emerge from the soulless housing estates thrown up since the 1960's such as Skelmersdale where this writer spent a year whilst undergoing teacher training, we see the nasty and brutal existance forced upon young people as the techno pop of the new romantics pulsates in the background in a somewhat escapist mode. Survival is the key but there is more to life than being unemployed or plucking chickens as the inhabitants of my home town Sunderland celebrate in the pubs and clubs on weekends when the paycheck or unemployment payment arrives.The story of the chance meeting in a bar and love at first sight followed by a night in a quayside hotel is a story played out in many towns and cities throughout the British isles but whereas the relationships established generally lead to a grim perpetuation of the existing circumstances in this case one of our heroes has a dream.Realising a dream is fraught with problems, especially when the general demeanour of a country is totally opposed to that of another. In this case our Kirby girl falls for a Soviet sailor who happens to be Russian and once his ship departs she discovers the harsh reakity of living in a bureaucratic centralised state, ie Britain. To achieve success she must battle lies and spin, fight the government and the press and become a pawn in a propaganda battle which ends with the victory of the soviet government who enable the reunion of the two lovers behind an iron curtain.There is much in this movie, the escapism and the fantasy. The brief intimate interludes which punctuate the dreary drudge of life in a factory in soulless towns. The centrality of a family unit in cramped conditions where relationships are fraught and edgy. The dreams and realities of an intelligent young woman with little educational success in an environment of competition for few eligible males which is often vicious. One of the most illuminating scenes is towards the very end of the movie where the hardened friend is wishing Elaine goodbye at the airport and her veneer cracks when she is alone. My only complaint is the seagulls which normally follow the ferry across the Mersey could not look more fake than on this movie.After spending a year near Merseyside I can say that I found the people there to be the salt of the earth and well represented by this movie. It is a film which comes along only once in a while but which is worth every compliment which can be paid to it. I have no hesitation recommending this to everyone although I feel that in my adopted country they will need subtitles.