Recently viewed movies.

https://youtu.be/wsUEbELWsEw

I didn't realize this was a parody until halfway through the video.

If I hadn't read this comment beforehand, I probably wouldn't have understood it either.

Taras Bulba (2009)

I don't remember the book very well, so I'm having trouble evaluating the film in comparison to it. The film itself is watchable, except for the battle scenes, which are terrible and pathetic. But I want to express my opinion more strongly about the plot of the book.
Even in school, this book evoked many contradictory feelings in me. Usually, I clearly understood that the antagonist of the book was bad, and the protagonist was good, but here I couldn't relate these things. Judge for yourself - I was raised, like many others, on Hollywood films, where tolerance and love were the main values, especially love - the hero who pursued love always was rewarded, without exception. Here, the main positive hero, Taras Bulba, organizes pogroms against the Jews. He does spare one of them, but even that he does only because that one knew his brother, and it's clear from his words and thoughts that he despises and hates him, and the author expresses approval of these thoughts. Andrey, who sincerely loves and saves his beloved from starvation, is shown to us as a negative character and dies. I've been thinking for a long time that it would be good to reread the book to perhaps look at the characters differently this time, but it turned out that I watched the film. And what can I say?
This is a rare, perhaps even exceptional, case where my opinion from school hasn't changed at all. The only thing that has changed is that in school, I timidly thought, "Well, maybe I don't understand something, and Taras is really right... he is the main character, and the teacher says that he is acting correctly..." The second brother - I forgot his name, it seems like Ostap - says that it was always difficult and boring for him to study when his father harassed him - he goes out with him one on one - a typical straightforward, brainless, but brave guy - and he is the main positive hero, not a traitor. Andrey, on the other hand, is restrained, educated, romantically in love - a traitor. When Taras stands over his corpse, he still argues, "Yes, you have a more aristocratic appearance. You were never one of us." Well, you understand, right? If you're a stupid thug, you're a good guy and a patriot; if you're educated and handsome, you're a traitor and a fifth column. Also, some of my doubts about the righteousness of Andrey have disappeared, as I have lost my patriotic feelings and realized that dying for lines on a map is not very smart; it is much better to live for a beautiful girl who reciprocates your feelings. As a result, thanks to Andrey's actions, his descendants will live in Europe, while Taras, through his actions, both directly and indirectly, killed both of his sons. Seriously, I'm writing all this, and it seems to me that Gogol's intention was misunderstood, and he annoyed everyone, because how can you exchange life for death? Although, okay, unfortunately, there are many such people, and I'm not talking about depression and loss of meaning in life, but specifically about the desire to die for the interests of others, which are masked by the words "fatherland" and "faith." Okay, I'm rambling too much and doing it incoherently, so I'll give a simple summary.

Who said that my homeland is Ukraine? Who gave it to me as my homeland? Homeland is what our soul seeks, what is dearest to it. My homeland is you!... and I will sell, give away, and destroy everything for such a homeland!

Seriously, it seems that the person who wrote these words understood what he was talking about. Or maybe Gogol simply didn't chicken out and depicted the conflict in an ambiguous way.