A Summary of the Film - Essay Example

Essay, Geography Topic: Geography and Film Exercise Brief summary of the film Humor turns out to be an important aspect to keep the viewer’s bound, when a romantic movie is created on a low budget. Shooting based on different locations increases the budget substantially. This is the movie of the pre-internet era of the 1980s. The cast, most importantly are: Margi Clarke, Alexandra Pigg, Peter Firth and Alfred Molina. With the Director working with the locational disadvantage (due to budget) he needs to concentrate on choice locations. Liverpool is an industrial city of Britain. When the industry becomes sick, the unemployment rate rises, people become demoralized and the ambience in the city appears depressed. Desperate situations lead to desperate consequences and the societal atmosphere becomes unhealthy and people take to thieving and all sorts of negativities. The Director’s strong reliance on the geographical assets of the city is depicted in the shots of Georgian architecture. People live as part of that geography and the crumbling buildings add to the grim situation. Even in that poor economic situation, people have not turned totally cynical and have retained the charm of their native wit. Two Soviet sailors Peter and Sergei go ashore to spend an adventurous night in Liverpool. Love and attraction for sex transcend geographical boundaries and the two natives of Liverpool, Elaine and Theresa are no exception. The interaction between Elaine and Peter turns out like an instant political pact between the two political leaders from England and Russia, though Peter’s knowledge of English language is too poor to cover the entire syllabus of love through language. But they must have employed other means of communication, but the call of the duty for the sailor from a Communist country, beats all other consideration. Their love story is confronted with the hurdles of geography as they belong to two different countries. The sailor leaves with the ship, and it is impossible for Elaine to revoke the love pact as such she writes an appeal and sends it to Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev to intervene to solve this personal issue having international ramifications! Brezhnev responds and she gets a ticket to Russia! A critique of the role of place in the film The role of place in Letter to Brezhnev goes in tandem with the requirement of the plot. Describing the conditions that prevail in most of the European urban centers A. B. Murphy et al. write “Residential neighborhoods in European cities today remain rooted in class. The clustering of foreign laborers in certain districts speaks of their socioeconomic status rather than their ethnic background, and that explains their near-chaotic mixing….in present day Liverpool…” (p.260). The choice of Liverpool as the place for shooting of the film is imaginative on the part of the Director of the movie to make it a representative sample of most of the urban centers and to highlight the economic plight and societal conditions of majority of the people over there. The Director is aware of the importance of geography and the role of place, in this low-budget movie. The love story in which the sailor is involved could have been a local sailor from her own country England. By introducing the sailor from Russia, the Director/script writer has introduced the element of geography to make the affair complicated and contesting. Thus, the place plays the decisive role in their love-affair and the problems of Iron-Curtain politics (Communist Russia) have been introduced. It also kindles curiosity amongst the viewers of the countries to which the lovers belong. In terms of creditability it is questionable whether the letter by Elaine will ever reach the table of Brezhnev, even though it is addressed to him. The humor element quickly dilutes the seriousness of the situation, and this one from Peter speaks about his sense of humor and knowledge of the economic realities in his country. He retorts “Queues are not formed by shortages," says Peter. "Queues are formed because the person who organizes the queue is a cretin." The Director is aware of the importance of place and geography in a movie, but he has the limitations of the budget. In such contingencies professionalism is the casualty, but the viewers too are imaginative to understand the problems of the Director. Many innovative shots of Liverpool, predominantly from the well-known ferry, speak about the artistry of city’s forsaken greatness. To do justice to both the lovers, Birkenhead skyline has been shown and the discerning viewers should take it as the skyline of Moscow. Thus the viewer’s large-heartedness in accommodating the shortcomings of the Director makes it not only a tolerable but acceptable and enjoyable movie from the point of view of location and geography. The likely impact of place and geography in the life of an individual It is a different matter for the lovers to be happy for one night, but whether it is possible for Elaine and Peter to enjoy a happy married life, when both of them belong to different places and the cultural and geographical conditions are entirely different. Leonid Brezhnev must have thought positively about such a relationship. With his intervention she gets a ticket to Moscow. The immediate question before Elaine( because tickets have an expiry date!) whether she should move to Russia for she will have to settled down there permanently, and she would be considered as an outsider and being a sailor, Peter will be out on duty for long periods. This is an important juncture in the life of an individual when one has to think about the place and geography while making long-term, life-affecting decisions. Thinking from this perspective, affects one’s psychological angle also, and in Elaine’s case she articulates that she has nothing to lose, as at that time the conditions in Liverpool are so bad and as such she decides to take the chance as otherwise she will never have anything. History does not repeat always and the golden opportunities arrive but on rare occasions in one’s life! Gender perspective Prima-facie Letter to Brezhnev appears to be a simple love story, but it is more than a plot depicting romance. It is the story of a courageous woman who believes in free sex and for the sake of love she is willing to take the fight to the highest level, that too in a country that is governed by totalitarian system. Elaine wishes to do something dramatic and she is willing to take the risk that has the possibility to ruin her life as she is trying to establish in a new country, adopt a new culture and reside in a new geographical area. Another issue is, female gender freedom supported in a country like England may or may not be there in a totalitarian State and will Elaine be able to cope and adjust with the cultural traits practiced there? For every problem Brezhnev is unlikely to come to her rescue. Nevertheless, it is something dramatic decision on Elaine’s part to break out from the trap she is in her own country. The book “The European Culture Area: A Systematic Geography” is not directly related to the movie Letter to Brezhnev. It, nevertheless, articulates the cultural and historical essence of European geography, particularly the city of Liverpool, where the action takes place. The vivid images of the city, though not of high class cinematic caliber, are adequate to provide the backgrounder information prevailing in Liverpool and the reasons for poverty engulfing the cities in the era of post-industrial revolution. The landscapes explain the pattern of the region. The Director’s approach to the story of the movie, challenges the viewers to the economic and political arenas of England and Russia, where two diametrically opposing political systems of governance prevail. The difference between the culture areas of England and Russia puts the question mark and the possibility of the love-relationship of Elaine and Peter turning sour. Culture-wise the European countries and Russia are poles apart. The author mentions the observation of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the famous Russian author, “The liquid manure of Western civilization is seeping through our borders.” The author further states “Implicit in many such remarks is the notion that Russia and some other European states do not belong to Europe.”(p.18) Thus Elaine is on to making altogether unique experiment in men-women relationship. The theme of poverty interwoven with the theme of love The theme of love has been carefully elaborated with a purpose to understand the conditions of the workers and the societal upheavals in the in the post industrial revolution era in Europe and how it affects the rural and urban populations. Colonies of the poor comparable to the ghettos in Harlem, New York sprung up in the urban centers of many European countries and the city of Liverpool highlighted in the movie was one such center. Denied the employment opportunities, and with the uprooting of the domestic cottage industries the female labor force also became directionless and destination–less giving rise to increase in petty crimes and other negativities engulfed the society. Elaine and her friend are examples of such combustible generation, utterly frustrated and amenable to take wrong decisions in life. Elaine was in such a hopeless economic position and she was in desperate need of some support which she found in the company of the Russian sailor. Works Cited Murphy, A. B., T.G. Jordan-Bychkov, and B. Bychkova Jordan. The European Culture Area: A Systematic Geography, 5th edition. Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield.2009; Print Bernard, Chris (Director). (1985). Letter to Brezhnev. Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXLByKfm6-E . Read More