On the Threshold
"Переступи порог" (1970)This movie hits a raw nerve for all the ne-udachniks in life, as youth, good looks, and talent are not enough to ensure success. In fact, the young 17-year-old hero is finding out the hard way that love is earned only by materialism, even in a Soviet paradise. This happens when his girlfriend finds herself unable to commit to getting married because Alex works as a telegram delivery boy for 42 rubles a month. And while he is great at mathematics, he loses interest in school and won't take advantage of a connection to get him into university when he fails the entrance exams.Yes, I can empathize with the main hero, as I also was burnt out with school. School, school, the means to everything, but also a prison that holds you into your 20s and then, in America, saddles you with debts in your best years, but for many people, including myself, brought no financial stability. Instead, I too found myself in poverty no matter what the job, working with my hands or behind a desk. And the same type of woman, who I considered a fiancée, dropped me like a stone when another man turned up, better set up for supporting a family. And America had certainly changed. Mr. Slater, with his 10 children in a big brick house, made a living selling potware and lived a comfortable middle-class life. A carpenter had a house with a large family, and so forth. But by 1990, after the waves of de-industrialization swept over America, I was left competing with millions of migrants for any kind of work and offered $3/hour. Not enough to cover lunch and gas to get to work.Therefore, this movie bridges the gaps between East & West and shows how so much is the same. How the young people have dreams and how their youth is often waisted in struggling to get on their feet in a crudely materialistic world.
"Переступи порог" (1970)This movie hits a raw nerve for all the ne-udachniks in life, as youth, good looks, and talent are not enough to ensure success. In fact, the young 17-year-old hero is finding out the hard way that love is earned only by materialism, even in a Soviet paradise. This happens when his girlfriend finds herself unable to commit to getting married because Alex works as a telegram delivery boy for 42 rubles a month. And while he is great at mathematics, he loses interest in school and won't take advantage of a connection to get him into university when he fails the entrance exams.Yes, I can empathize with the main hero, as I also was burnt out with school. School, school, the means to everything, but also a prison that holds you into your 20s and then, in America, saddles you with debts in your best years, but for many people, including myself, brought no financial stability. Instead, I too found myself in poverty no matter what the job, working with my hands or behind a desk. And the same type of woman, who I considered a fiancée, dropped me like a stone when another man turned up, better set up for supporting a family. And America had certainly changed. Mr. Slater, with his 10 children in a big brick house, made a living selling potware and lived a comfortable middle-class life. A carpenter had a house with a large family, and so forth. But by 1990, after the waves of de-industrialization swept over America, I was left competing with millions of migrants for any kind of work and offered $3/hour. Not enough to cover lunch and gas to get to work.Therefore, this movie bridges the gaps between East & West and shows how so much is the same. How the young people have dreams and how their youth is often waisted in struggling to get on their feet in a crudely materialistic world.