The Detached Mission (1985)

Touches You

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

SOLO VOYAGE: THE REVENGE is a cheapjack Russian action film in which a bunch of military heroes are called into action to battle the evil endeavours of the USA and CIA at the height of the Cold War. Seen today, it's nothing more than a lazy propaganda piece full of impossibly macho Russian heroes and their stereotyped American oppressors, seen swigging from beer cans and generally lording it over their domain. The film is choppily made and structure, and the bizarre dubbing doesn't really help to make sense of it all. I was hoping for a Russian version of RAMBO but I got this head-scratcher instead.

This film should be required viewing for the members of that super secret American Guild Of Bad Action Moviemaking Involving Evil Russians as a lesson on how bad action movies should be made. Solo Voyage, although understanadbly lacking in special effects and high-budget eye candy (the shapely Veronika Izotova as Caroline Harrison doesn't count, as she clearly wasn't high-budget), puts to shame the high-priced American garbage like Rambo, Iron Eagle, the Delta Force and other psuedo-patriotic military nonsense. This Russian pseudo-patriotic military nonsense is, indeed, the best film in its rather forgiving genre that I have seen in many, many years. Of course, the main quality of this film is its gorgeous, amazingly convincing portrayal of Americans. To fully understand how well Solo Voyage portrays US citizens one must view all those innumerable American films with The Stereotypical Evil/Good (cirlce the correct answer) Russian Character. If you know ANYTHING about Russians (not from the movies!), please do watch Rambo and its ilk before you see the Solo Voyage. The "typical" Russian military man, according to an American film, will be between the ages of 31 and 58, bald (or sporting a crew-cut), moustachioed (or sporting a wild Czar Nicholas-style beard), constantly drinking gallons of vodka and answering to that common Russian name of Alexander Streptokokkoff, Alexei Carbohydratski or Gregor Samsa (with apologies to the Ivan Drago/Danko clan of the Siberian wilderness). I won't even mention his accent (he will have an accent, since for the convenience of the American viewing public he must speak English), which boils down to rolling his R's in a way that would make a drunken Mexican green with envy. Now look at the Americans from the Solo Voyage. I challenge you to find any flaw in them, other than bad acting, of course. Their English is perfect, their manners are genuine, their names are typical (Harrison, Robinson, Crowder), their clothes are correct (down to the University of Iowa Hawkeyes logo on a baseball cap), their evilness is believable. So believable in fact, it makes me want to pick up an AK-47 and defend the world from imperialists right now! At first I thought that the director was able to cast some American or English actors, but I was amazed to find out that all the American characters were played by Russians and Lithuanians. Actually, the least believable characters in this movie, as ironic as it is, are the Russian soldiers, mostly due to the wooden performance by the cast. Now, I strongly suspect that there are many more Russians in America than there are Americans in Russia. This is why it's so hard to understand why this 1985 Soviet film portrays Americans so accurately, while its US counterparts could never come up with a Russian character more realistic that a Superman-comic villain.

I saw this film in Moscow back in 1986, while on a student trip. I found it extremely entertaining. My Russian was (and still is) limited, but due to the unusual dubbing technique used (the "Americans" portrayed in the film actually spoke English, but with a voice-over translating in Russian), I was able to follow the story line pretty closely.It was pretty amusing to see what the Soviets thought of American values back then - especially the scenes aboard an "US Navy" aircraft carrier. A news crew is aboard filming the carrier's crew during an exercise. While interviewing the captain (shown in his full dress white glory, puffing away on a cigar), in the background can be seen Heiniken Beer cans literally strewn about the deck.The film's producers shot many of the scenes in Cuba (subbing in for the 'ol USA and the Pacific Island Command Post). This film is also notable in that it revealed the little-known fact that our armed forces (the Air Force, in particular) slap stylized name logos on just about every piece of ordinance in sight.All in all, I am looking forward to finding this little gem on VHS - it's worth it!

I remembered the publicity this movie received in 1986 in such publications as NEWSWEEK, and was curious to find out what it was like. I mail-ordered it from RBC Video in Brooklyn, NY. The movie, in its original Russian, reveals that the CIA appointed US Army major Jack Hessalt to be in charge of a secret missile base in the Atlantic Ocean. Jack is still troubled by memories of Vietnam, and soon goes berserk, taking control of the base and killing some crew members. Jack and his cronies commandeer a powerful missile and proceed to perform terrorism ... but they haven't counted on a rough-n-ready squad of Russian Marines who are determined to open a whole borscht-barrel of a*s-whuppin'. For an action movie, this isn't bad if you take into account that the Russian film- makers had NO access to huge Stallone- sized budgets and special effects. The level of production values for this mid-80's Soviet movie are about equal to what a mid-60's American movie would have.