Moscow on the Hudson

Quite some time back I recorded Moscow on the Hudson. It seems to be out of print on DVD, but it is available at both Amazon streaming and Google Play if you can do either of those. And since I still need to free up space on my DVR, I decided to do a post on it even though I personally don't have the bandwidth to do streaming.

Robin Williams plays Vladimir Ivanoff, who at the start of the movie is sitting on a bus in New York. He's asked by a fellow passenger whether this is the right bus to get to a certain place, and this ultimately leads Vladimir to do some reflecting as to how he wound up where he is.

Flash back to Moscow. Vladimir is a saxophonist for the band that plays for a circus. He shows up late to practice one day because he spent a whole bunch of time standing in line to get shoes, even though they don't have any in his size. This being the Soviet Union of the end of the Brezhnev era, it's a very gray place, with Vladimir living in a cramped apartment with his parents and grandparents, with the KGB looking into his grandfather, who is probably going senile.

The one bright spot is that Vladimir and the rest of the circus have been invited to perform in the United States, a plum gig if you can get it. Of course, the KGB minder warns them of how terrible life in the States is, and people are so paranoid that perhaps their roommates might inform on them. Indeed, one of Vladimir's friends, trusting him, says that he's seriously thinking of defecting.

Ironically, that's not what happens. The circus performs, and on the last day of the tour before they're scheduled to fly back home, the performers are allowed half an hour to shop at Bloomingdale's. None of them ever having been in a Western-style department store, they don't know American shopping conventions and make life difficult for staff like the security guard Lionel (Cleavant Derricks). Just before their time at Bloomingdale's is up, it's Vladimir who decides he's going to defect.

This causes an international scene, and life is at first not easy for for Vladimir. Lionel takes pity on him and since Vladimir doesn't have a place to stay, lets him stay in his apartment, which like Vladimir's in Russia has an extended family. He can't get a job as a saxophonist, so he works a series of odd jobs. The woman at the perfume counter in Bloomingdale's whom he met just before defecting, is Lucia (Maria Conchita Alonso), herself an immigrant. The two start a tentative relationship.

I was always under the impression that Moscow on the Hudson was a comedy, but it's really more of a light drama. There's certainly a lot of comedic elements, but the main themes are definitely on the drama side of the line. Robin Williams really could do more than just be zany, and this is his opportunity to show it.

America being a country founded largely on the idea of immigration and being the land of opportunity, there's a lot here that will resonate with Americans, even though the idea of defecting from Russia is one that became dated overnight. Although America is that land of opportunity, the road there is one that's filled with bumps, and Vladimir encounters a lot of those bumps. Despite that, the movie is ultimately optimistic.

If there's a flaw, it was a likely unwitting mistake from director Paul Mazursky. He was a native New Yorker, and this movie, like his earlier Next Stop, Greenwich Village and even the opening portion of Harry and Tonto, show his love of the city, warts and all. Here, however, he almost seems to equate New York with all of America. In a diner, Vladimir gets in a debate with another Russian immigrant for whom the American dream hasn't quite panned out either. I kept thinking if they're getting beaten down by life in New York, there's a lot of America out there that won't beat them down in the same way. The scene ends up with them misquoting from the Declaration of Independence, crucially saying men are endowed with the right to life, liberty, and happiness -- just happiness, not the pursuit of happiness.

If you want an interesting film looking at a unique period in American history, Moscow on the Hudson is a good one to watch.