Red Moscow

Seeing that Sokov was so insistent on his opinion, Petrov could only nod and said helplessly: "Okay, General Sokov, just tell me your idea, and I'll see if it can be adapted into a movie script." .”

After Sokov read the script of "Attack on Berlin" last night, he was wondering whether "At the Gate" should be released in advance? Now that Petrov was willing to listen to him talk about the idea of ​​a new script, he simply told him the story setting and plot of "At the Battle of the City".

As everyone knows, "At the Gate" is a movie written and directed by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, starring Jude Law and Ed Harris. It was released in mainland China in 2001. The film is adapted from the 1973 documentary novel of the same name by writer William Craig. The film tells the story of a life-and-death battle in the Battle of Stalingrad between the legendary Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev and the German army's top sharpshooter Major Konni during World War II.

Since this movie was not shot in Russia, there is a lot of slander and distortion of facts in the plot, which is an absolute taboo in this era. So when Sokov told the script to Petrov, he made adjustments in some details.

For example, when the recruits, including Vasily, were crossing the Volga River on a ferry, they were bombed and strafed by enemy planes. Some of the frightened recruits jumped into the water to escape, and were then shot and killed by political workers on the ship. , was changed by Sokov into a ferry for new recruits. When crossing the river, it was attacked by enemy planes. The ferry was unfortunately bombed and sunk, but the surviving soldiers still swam to the other side with their tenacious will.

The second thing that needs to be modified is that because there are not enough weapons and ammunition, the recruits who just landed on the right bank can only take a rifle without bullets, while the other person takes five rounds of bullets and shoots at the soldiers entrenched in the Stalingrad train station. The enemy charges. After the attack failed, the returning recruits were shot dead by the supervising team's machine guns. Only Vasily escaped by hiding in the fountain of "Young Pioneers and Crocodiles".

When Sokov told the story, he truthfully stated that there were not enough weapons and equipment provided to the recruits, but when the recruits attacked, it was not that one person held an unloaded rifle and the other held five bullets. Instead, it was changed to two people with one gun. One of them charged with a loaded rifle, while the other held an engineer shovel or a grenade and charged towards the enemy position without hesitation.

The reason why there are scenes of soldiers charging with engineer shovels or grenades is not Sokov's whim, but that he had seen similar scenes in the Soviet Patriotic war movies later, and he just used the scenes in those movies Just moved here.

After talking about Vasily's accurate sniper killing of five German soldiers with five bullets on the battlefield, the rest of the content is basically Vasily's true performance in the battle to defend Stalingrad.

When Sokov first started telling it, Petrov was a little disapproving, but as the story progressed, he gradually became interested and even took out his notebook and started recording. At this time, Eisenstein came over to discuss matters with him. Seeing what Sokov was telling Petrov, he couldn't help but curiously asked: "Misha, what are you telling Comrade Petrov?"

"Sergey, don't interrupt." Petrov quickly waved his hand away from Eisenstein and said, "General Sokov is telling me about a script he has conceived. If you have any questions, we will talk about it later."

After hearing this, Eisenstein was a little surprised and said: "Oh, I really didn't expect that Misha would also write scripts."

"I just made it up." Sokov said with a chuckle: "Sergey, since you are here, you might as well sit down and listen to see if the story I conceived can be adapted into a script. "

Eisenstein nodded, sat down next to Petrov, and listened quietly to Sokov describing the script in his mind.

After Sokov finished speaking, Eisenstein and Petrov looked at each other and saw shocked expressions in each other's eyes. "Misha," Eisenstein asked tentatively as he turned his gaze back to Sokov, "is this the script you conceived?"

"Yes, Sergey, this is the script I conceived." Sokov said to the two of them: "The "Battle of Stalingrad" you filmed introduced the battle from a macro perspective, and my script This is a commentary on this cruel battle that can be called the turning point of World War II from the perspective of a little person."

"The turning point of World War II?" Hearing the word Sokov said, Petrov's eyes widened in surprise: "General Sokov, I really didn't expect that you would use such words to evaluate this battle."

"Is there something wrong?"

Hearing Sokov's question, Petrov was silent for a moment, and then said: "I have always believed that the turning point of World War II should be the Battle of Kursk. Unexpectedly, you thought it was the Battle of Stalingrad. "

"Comrade Director," Sokov waited for Petrov to finish, and then said: "The reason why I call the Battle of Stalingrad the turning point of World War II is because after we defeated the Germans here, the Patriotic War began from the very beginning. The strategic retreat stage turned into a strategic stalemate stage. It is not wrong to call the Kursk Battle as the turning point of World War II. After all, after this battle, our army changed from a strategic stalemate stage to a strategic offensive stage. .”

After hearing what Sokov said, Petrov turned to look at Eisenstein and said with a smile: "Sergey, General Sokov is indeed an excellent general of our army. When it comes to military matters, he is very sound. Strategic retreat, strategic stalemate. This is the first time I have heard new terms like strategic attack.”

"Me too." Eisenstein nodded and said, "This is also the first time I heard it."

"General Sokov, I have a question for you," Petrov said.

"Please tell me, comrade director, I will tell you everything I know."

"You just mentioned the Vasily Building, where Vasily and 22 commanders and fighters withstood the German siege for 58 days." Petrov looked at Sokov and asked: "Are they really so powerful?"

After hearing this question, Sokov fell silent. After a long time, he finally said: "Comrade directors, there are no outsiders here. Let me tell you the truth. The 23 people were left after the fighting. In fact, as many as one and a half of the commanders and soldiers died inside and outside this building. Regiment, the surviving soldiers come from 23 companies that have no relationship with each other, and most of them do not even belong to a battalion. The reason why it is called Vasily Building is because Vasily is in charge of the command inside. I once asked Vasily privately Sili, he didn’t know how many officers and soldiers rushed out to fight the enemy. During the two months they held the building, almost all of their supplies came from the officers and soldiers from both sides who died in battle.”

As soon as Sokov said this, the room suddenly became quiet. Eisenstein asked in surprise: "Misha, are everything you said true? Why is it different from the battle reports we saw?"

"This is the need for propaganda." Sokov sighed softly and continued: "The vast majority of the commanders and fighters who rushed out were buried in the ruins around the Vasily Building. When the ruins were cleared after the war, most of them They were fragmented corpses that made no distinction between friend and foe, and only a few hundred were intact. As for how many people were killed or injured near the Vasily Building, so far, it is impossible to calculate an accurate number.

In fact, the reason why the Vasily Building was able to persist for such a long time was because the remaining troops of our army still controlled several surrounding buildings, including the flour mill building, and could support the Vasily Building at any time. Therefore, the Germans attacked Not just a building, but an entire defensive support point. "

After listening to Sokov's words, Petrov and Eisenstein had a look of surprise on their faces. Although they did not have the opportunity to go to the battlefield, when writing the script of "The Battle of Stalingrad", they still came into contact with many soldiers who participated in the Battle of Stalingrad and learned some inside stories. Therefore, after listening to Sokov's words, although they were surprised, they did not blindly jump out and accuse Sokov of talking nonsense.

"Vladimir, what do you think?" Eisenstein looked at Petrov and asked, "Do you think the story Misha told can be adapted into a movie script?"

"I think it's okay." Petrov said very readily: "And we can take advantage of the opportunity of our filming here to film this script as well."

"Vladimir, I'm thinking about something." Seeing that Petrov readily agreed to adapt Sokov's story into a movie script, Eisenstein showed a relaxed expression on his face: "If this If two movies are made at the same time, tell me, are there any chances of them being released around the world?"

"I don't think it's a big problem if it's released in our country and in the European countries controlled by us." Petrov said: "But if it's released in areas controlled by Europe and the United States, I'm afraid it's not that easy. Just translating this. If this happens, our movie will not be released."

"Hey, this is a big problem." Petrov said with a wry smile: "If there is a language that can be used all over the world, then there should be no big problem when our movies are released abroad."

When Sokov heard Petrov talking about the universal language, he immediately thought of the "Esperanto" that was touted for some time in later generations. It was in the mid-1980s that some people who could not learn English well invented a language and euphemistically called it "Esperanto". They also boasted: "By the year 2000 at the latest, Esperanto will be used all over the world." The number of people will exceed 4 billion, accounting for 80% of the global total."

But in fact, this fabricated language is just for a small group of people to entertain themselves, and no country endorses it or recognizes its legitimacy. Even in the 2020s, there are still very few people who know this language, which was once highly touted, let alone use it.

"Misha." Sokov was thinking wildly when he suddenly heard Eisenstein calling him and quickly looked up at him. Eisenstein looked at Sokov and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Naturally, Sokov would not tell the other party that he was thinking about a much-vaunted language in future generations. Even if he did say it, the other party would regard it as a lunatic. After all, if an artificially invented language is not recognized by any country, it will not have much room for circulation. Unless you are too idle and it's okay to learn it to pass the time, it is simply a fool's errand to think that this language can really develop to be used by 80% of the world's people.

"Sergey, I'm thinking, if the story I told can really be adapted into a movie script, who should be found to play the role of Vasily."

Eisenstein laughed loudly after hearing this, and then turned to Petrov and said: "Vladimir, I really didn't expect that Misha is still impatient. While we were still discussing whether this story could be adapted into a script, he was already Think about who should play the main character in the movie."

"General Sokov," Petrov smiled and asked Sokov seriously: "I would like to ask, is this legendary sniper Vasily Zaitsev still alive? "

"Alive, alive." Sokov nodded vigorously and said in a positive tone: "Last year, I established a sniper school and invited him and two other snipers to serve as instructors."

After Sokov said this, he suddenly remembered that he was so confused that he had forgotten the other two snipers. He raised his hand and slapped himself on the forehead, and said angrily: "Confused, confused, so confused. I forgot such an important thing."

After Eisenstein and Petrov looked at each other, they turned their attention to Sokov again and asked curiously: "Misha, what's wrong with you?"

"I just said that I organized a sniper school last year and invited Vasily and two other snipers to serve as instructors." Sokov explained to the two of them: "In fact, the other two snipers are not famous at all. No worse than Vasily."

Hearing what Sokov said, the two of them suddenly became interested: "I wonder who the other two snipers are?"

"One is a female sniper, whose full name is Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko." Sokov said: "She has sniped 309 German soldiers, including 36 German soldiers. The sniper, was awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Gold Star medal, and was called the 'Queen of Snipers'."

"Well, I've heard of her." Petrov nodded and said: "She participated in the defense of Moldova and defended Odessa, Crimea and Sevastopol. Later, she was injured and was He was sent to Moscow. After recovering from his injuries, he visited the United States with our country's youth delegation and called on the allies to open a second battlefield as soon as possible to reduce the pressure we were under."

Having said this, he looked at Sokov and asked with some urgency: "General Sokov, do you plan to make another movie based on her experience?"

"Yes, Comrade Director." Sokov gave the other party a positive answer.

"So what are you going to call this movie?"

"How about just calling it "Female Sniper"?"

"I think it's okay." After Petrov agreed with Sokov's statement, he continued to ask: "Then what are you going to name the movie about Vasily?"

Thinking of the name that would be ready for later generations, Sokov felt that it was not necessary, so he simply replied: ""At the Gate of the City"."

After hearing the two movie names chosen by Sokov, Petrov nodded slowly and said: "Yes, yes, I think the two names you mentioned are good. If the script adaptation can pass the review, I will choose you." These two names.”