The Flight of Mr. McKinley

The Flight of Mr. McKinley (Russian: Бегство мистера Мак-Кинли, romanized: Begstvo mistera Mak-Kinli) is a 1975 Soviet science fiction film directed by Mikhail Schweitzer.[2][3][4]

The Flight of Mr. McKinley
Directed byMikhail Schweitzer
Written byLeonid Leonov
Starring
Music byIsaac Schwartz
CinematographyDilshat Fatkhulin
Production
company
Release date
8 December 1975 (Soviet Union)
15 December 1975 (Soviet Union)
18 October 1976 (Poland)
1977 (Italy)
17 March 1977 (Hungary)[1]
Running time
161 minutes
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageRussian

Plot

A scientist invents the colloid gas — a creation that allows a person to hibernate for a hundred and more years, and wake up in almost the same physical state as when he was falling asleep.

The colloid gas is immediately used for commercial purposes by Sam Boulder, who creates a Salvatory system; sheltered deep underground, well-equipped storage facilities of those people who want to go to the future - fleeing from incurable disease, boredom, the threat of nuclear war, or simply because of the desire to "remain an eternal champion".

McKinley is a small man, a clerk in one of the advertising bureaus - very fond of children but his dreams of having his own are hampered by an inferiority complex, which manifests itself as a fear of a nuclear war and a world catastrophe. McKinley seeks to escape from the outside world, and from himself.

Once at the press conference of SBS, which creates and maintains a network of salvatories, McKinley draws the attention of one of the top managers of this firm and receives an invitation to visit one of the salvatories to get acquainted with his work. After that, Mr. McKinley, fascinated by the fantastic technology of the salvatories, has only one dream in life - to get into the salvatory and escape to the future. For this he is even ready to commit crime.

He attempts a number of times to get rich in order to buy a treasured ticket to a salvatory, but always ends up failing. At the last moment, McKinley finds a winning lottery ticket, which has the amount required for the purchase of the ticket.

The fantasy comes true - McKinley sleeps for 250 years to wake up later clean, shaved and washed ready to go out into the new world. He does not pay attention to the strange behavior of the hateful and contemptful employees of SBS, who are performing their duties strictly according to the instructions. The elevator takes McKinley to the surface of the Earth but instead of a flowering garden, a world scorched by endless wars waits for him.

But all this turns out to be only a dream. McKinley did not leave his time period, and he acts as he never did before to cure his complexes.

Cast

Production

Film score

Schweitzer, in the process of reworking the Leonov's script so that it would be more suited for the present time, decided to express the author's idea through songs.

Since the film was made in the American style, the idea arose to use the method of end-to-end ballads widely used in American films. The option of inviting Dean Reed was considered, however, Schweitzer's wife came up with the idea of hiring Vladimir Vysotsky.

Vysotsky wrote the ballads, but they were mostly unsuitable for the picture because of their excessive length. Composer of the film's score Schwartz refused to write his own ballads which was why some songs were written by Anatoly Kalvarsky.[5][6]

Location

Outdoor scenes of the film were mostly shot in Budapest.[5]

References
  1. "Бегство мистера Мак-Кинли - дата выхода в России и других странах мира". www.kinopoisk.ru. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
  2. "Бегство мистера Мак-Кинли". Encyclopedia of Russian Cinema.
  3. "Энциклопедия кино — БЕГСТВО МИСТЕРА МАККИНЛИ". dic.academc.ru.
  4. "БЕГСТВО МИСТЕРА МАК-КИНЛИ. Х/Ф". Russia-K.
  5. "Высоцкий. Глава 61. Бегство мистера Мак-Кинли". Echo of Moscow.
  6. "Цыбульский Марк: "Бегство мистера Мак-Кинли"". vysotskiy-lit.ru.

The Flight of Mr. McKinley at IMDb

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