Review of the Russian Film “Day Watch”

“Day Watch” is an intriguing Russian film. I suspect that it might have done very well in its own country. The plot was interesting, although not fully fleshed out. The acting, which was done by Russian actors, was actually not bad at all. The problem with this film is that it lost too much in the translation to English.

The premise of the movie is that an armistice of sorts has been called between the forces of light and darkness, which is separated by different realms of existence. A group, called Day Watch, is charged with making sure that both sides maintain the peace.

However, the forces of evil as usual aren’t about to abide by any set of rules and they begin to disobey. A young boy, attacks old people at will, draining their life forces from them; an act that is strictly forbidden by the treaty. But when a Day Watch agent tracks the boy back to his realm, almost catching him, her partner mysteriously stops her.

It isn’t long before we learn that the boy committing the crimes is actually the son of a Day Watch member. To protect their new chosen one, the dark forces set up the boy’s father, accusing him of killing one of their own; another treaty violation.

The movie is supposedly a part of a trilogy that deals with a device called the “chalk of fate.” The chalk holds the power to rewrite history. Believed to have been lost hundreds of years ago, both sides obviously want to get their hands on it for their own reasons. Each side has cultivated a powerful “great other” who are set to collide and ultimately decide the fate of all mankind.

Both of these individuals are tied to the movie’s hero. One is his son and the other his partner; leaving Anton Gorodetsky smack in the middle between good and evil. He obviously wants to save them both but knows he cannot. What follows is the tug war between light and dark; wrong and right; and that inevitable middle ground that is almost impossible to maintain.

As I said, the plot was good and the screenplay held tons of promise. The direction was also quite well done. Of course, the real star was the special effects, which had a kind of “Matrix” quality about them; although not quite as advanced.

The problem with the Americanized version of this film is that it leaves the audience with a lot of unanswered questions. How did Anton’s son end up on the dark side, while his father fights for good? Exactly what are the “great ones;” what makes them so unique; and how is it decided who they will be?

For all the talk of vampires throughout the movie, it is clear that the Russian idea of vampirism is different than the American version. But, no one really explains this difference, which further muddies the waters of the film.

This story needed more background. However, I suspect that might have been lost in trying to cut the Russian version, which was nearly three hours in length, down to fit American standards. Still, without that background information, it leaves the audience scratching their heads, trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

Oddly, I found that if I watched the film in Russian with American subtitles it flowed so much better than the dubbed English version. That was partly due to the bad match job done between characters and voices, but it was also due to the changes in voice inflection between the Russian and American versions.

I would love to see Hollywood redo this film and Americanize it. I think it holds that kind of possibility. Otherwise, I would encourage them to leave the Russian version as it was shot and just let people deal with the subtitles. It is too poorly translated the other way.

As for the actors, it is hard to gage Russian actors against American ones. The difference is night and day. Russians lean more toward brooding and have a kind of gruff exterior that most American actors just can’t quite pull off. But I liked what I saw in this film and that is all that really matters.

I give this film two stars out of five. It would have been higher had the background of the story been more clear.