Night Watch (2004 film)

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Night Watch (Nochnoy Dozor)
International poster for Night Watch
Directed by	Timur Bekmambetov
Produced by	Konstantin Ernst Anatoli Maksimov
Written by	Novel: Sergei Lukyanenko Screenplay: Timur Bekmambetov and Laeta Kalogridis (English adaptation), Sergei Lukyanenko and Timur Bekmambetov (original Russian screenplay)
Starring	Konstantin Khabensky Mariya Poroshina
Distributed by	Gemini Film Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date(s)	July 8, 2004 September 2, 2005 October 7, 2005 October 11, 2005 February 17, 2006
Running time	115 min.
Language	Russian (all versions) English (int'l.-version voice-overs)
Budget	US$4.2 million
Followed by	Day Watch (Dnevnoi Dozor)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Night Watch (Russian: Ночной дозор, Nochnoy Dozor) is a 2004 Russian fantasy action thriller film by the Kazakhstan-born film director Timur Bekmambetov. It is loosely based on The Night Watch, and is the first part of a trilogy, followed by Day Watch and ending with the 2009 release of Twilight Watch as confirmed by IMDB^[1].

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Release and reception
- 3.1 International release
4 Novel vs. film
- 4.1 Major differences
5 Product placement in the film
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Plot

In the prologue, which is set in medieval times, humans with extra powers are called Others. The Others are proponents of either light or dark and confront each other to do battle. Gessar, lord of light, realises that the two forces are evenly matched and both will be destroyed. In parley with Zavulon, general of dark, the two agree to a truce in which the light will form a Night Watch and the dark a Day Watch to maintain the balance before the coming of the Great One who will choose either Light or Dark and thereby bring one to prominence.

In modern Russia, when his wife leaves him for another man, Anton goes to see an old woman who he believes will be able to bring her back. This woman tells him that his wife is pregnant by the other man and the fetus must be aborted or she will return to the other man. Anton accepts responsibility for this. The old woman prepares a drink involving Anton's blood which he drinks. He has a vision of his wife telling the other man they have to split up. The old woman casts a spell to abort the fetus, and Anton's wife on a distant boat collapses and clutches at her womb but just as the spell is about to be complete, three figures burst into the room, one of whom shapeshifts into a tiger, and restrains the old woman. They express surprise when Anton sees them and note that he must be a seer.

Twelve years later, an alcoholic Anton is living in a squalid apartment. The three figures were part of the Night Watch; Anton has also become a member. At Anton's request, Kostya, his neighbor, takes him to his father, a butcher, to procure blood for Anton to drink. The father does so reluctantly and notes after Anton leaves that the Night Watch only drink blood when they are hunting a vampire.

A twelve-year-old boy, Yegor, is hearing a psychic call by a vampire who intends to feed. Anton tracks Yegor, being able to hear the call as he nears Yegor. On the way he sees a blond woman with her hair flying about even though she is inside a subway train with no airflow.

Two vampires are about to feed on Yegor when Anton arrives, and he is attacked by the male vampire, whom Anton can see only in a mirror. Anton wounds the female vampire, who hides. The other members of the Night Watch arrive and turn on special lights on their truck. Anton then picks up a mirror shard and directs the light from the truck towards the male vampire's chest, destroying him. A member of the Day Watch arrives and reveals that the male vampire had had the appropriate license issued by Night Watch to turn the woman into a vampire.

Anton is healed by Gessar who notes that he could have solved things more easily by entering into a shadow world called the Gloom. He reveals a legend about a virgin who was cursed and people and animals around her died or sickened, she was accompanied by a vortex of damnation. Either this virgin who has been reborn must die or they must find who cursed her. Gessar gives Anton an assistant called Olga in the shape of a stuffed owl. Anton refuses and laughs until he sees Gessar throw it out the window, whereupon it turns into a living owl that flies away.

At Anton's apartment, the owl arrives and shapeshifts into a woman. Kostya arrives and says he knows that Anton killed the vampire Dark Other. Anton and Olga track Yegor to his home where they must enter the Gloom as Yegor is accidentally there hiding from the female vampire. The Gloom almost takes Yegor, but a blood sacrifice from Anton distracts it enough for them to escape. Emerging from the Gloom, Anton sees a photo of Yegor and his mother, Anton's wife of twelve years ago. Night Watch members Tiger and Bear arrive to protect Yegor but they start kissing and the boy follows the call.

Anton and Olga go to a command and control centre set up near the apartment of the woman, Svetlana, from the subway train. A vortex is over her apartment and bad things have been happening to those near her. Accessing his file, Anton learns that the old lady lied to him and that Yegor is his son. Anton enters Svetlana's apartment and talks with her, whereby it is revealed that she cursed herself, meaning she is an Other. This revealed, the curse ends and the vortex disappears.

Held hostage by the female vampire, Yegor is turned over to Zavulon. Zavulon's assistant reads Anton's personal file aloud and hearing that Anton tried to kill him as a fetus, Yegor willingly turns to the Dark, much to the dismay of Anton.

[edit] Production

The film was the first big-budget Russian fantasy film and one of the first blockbusters made after the collapse of the Soviet film industry. The film was produced by Channel One, the government-owned TV channel, with a budget of US$4.2 million.^[2] It was shot in an 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

Part of the challenge for such a big-budget fantasy film was creating hundreds of visual effects (VFX) shots to which a modern audience is accustomed. 16 Russian VFX studios and several freelancers were used, each chosen for their individual strengths. Many shots were created by different artists across different time zones, using the Internet to share data and images, mostly using Windows NT workstations.^[3]

[edit] Release and reception

After a first appearance at the Moscow Film Festival on June 27, 2004, it went on general cinema release across the CIS on July 8, 2004. The film was extremely successful, becoming the highest-grossing Russian release ever, grossing US$16.7 million in Russia alone, thus making more money in Russia than The Lord of the Rings. The sequel, Day Watch, was released across the CIS on January 1, 2006, with a third film in the works. There is also a TV series in production.

The film attracted the attention of Fox Searchlight Pictures, which paid $4 million to acquire the worldwide distribution rights (excluding Russia and the Baltic states) of Night Watch and its sequel Day Watch.[1][2]

Fox Searchlight also offered to finance the third part. As a consequence, the third part will be filmed in the United States, likely with other actors speaking English instead of Russian. [3]

[edit] International release

One year after the Russian release, the international distribution began. Other than a London premiere at the Odeon West End as part of the Frightfest horror film festival, that screened amid heavy security on August 28, 2005^[4], the first European country outside CIS was Spain where it was released on September 2, 2005. By mid October it had been released in most European countries, and on February 17, 2006 it had a limited release in the United States, followed by a full release on March 3. By February 13, 2006 (i.e. before the U.S. release) it had grossed US$32 million.

Original English language poster for Night Watch
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The "international version" of the film debuted in the United Kingdom. In the prologue and epilogue, the Russian voice-over has been dubbed in English, but for the rest of the film features stylized subtitles appearing in odd places around the screen, often animated to emphasise or complement the action. For example, in a scene in which Yegor is being called by a Dark vampire, he is in a pool and the camera is underwater. The caption appears as blood red text that dissolves as blood would in water. In another scene, as a character walks across the scene from left to right, the caption is revealed as his body crosses the screen. In addition, many of the scenes that were present in the Russian theatrical release were omitted, while, at the same time, some scenes were recut or added. The International version is shorter by 10 minutes. Overall, it helped to make the film's plot clearer than it was in the original theatrical version, though many purists argue that the deletions subtract from the film. The DVD was released in the UK on April 24, 2006. The zone 4 DVD had the option of either a Russian or an English audiotrack. Subtitles were simply plain white text at the bottom of the screen.

Some of the changes to the International version:

In the international cut, the movie title is shown before the prologue. In the Russian version, it is shown during the swimming pool scene.
The prologue of the international cut is in English and is more detailed in describing the concept of the "Others".
When Anton gets prepared, the voice on the phone explains his mission in a more detailed fashion in the international version than in the Russian one.
Anton is a "seer" in the international cut, who gets visions at various places in the film.
There are some flashbacks to the apartment of the witch Darya, where Simeon and Bear explain to Anton who the Others are.
Some of voiceovers by Anton during Daria's ritual were added to the international cut, such as his question "Is it lemonade?" and his exclamations "No". In the Russian cut, while Darya recites her incantation, Anton's horrified look is barely seen, we get more to see Darya and her hands covered with blood.
The character "Ignat" who was played by Gosha Kutsenko has been cut out completely. In the Russian cut Ignat is a Light Incubus capable of seducing any woman. Geser sends Simeon to fetch Ignat in order to seduce Svetlana so that she would "relax" and lose her vortex of damnation, or at least, say who cursed her. Ignat is reluctant, as he is with his girlfriend, and has to marry her the next day, but has to agree. As Svetlana runs out of coffee, she goes to a night supermarket, and they meet. He follows her home and stays with her. But when, in a moment of weakness, he mentions his forthcoming wedding, Svetlana freaks out, and Geser calls him off. Ignat spends the rest of the movie locked inside the Gorsvet truck.
The subplot inside of the plane involving a middle-aged couple, mostly used as for comic relief as the woman is innervingly superstitious, is missing from the international cut. As a consequence, when in the Russian cut, Anatoliy logs in the search engine as Gorsvet, chooses the new option "search in the future" and stumbles upon the article about the plane crash (which then switches to the same plane, ready to take off), in the international cut he simply check the weather forecast and reads about a storm approaching. Coincidentally enough, at one point, the woman in the plane mentions she saw a dark-haired man in her dreams, then corrects herself saying he was bald: she is talking about Ignat, who has been cut out as well.
Most of the dialogs have been redubbed to make the plot more convenient to the international audience. Most redubs were done in scenes with Gesser and Olga:
- The power of persuasion was taken away: while in the Russian cut Olga advises Anton to persuade Svetlana he is a patient, in the international cut she simply advises him to lie to her, hoping she'll believe.
- In the international version, when Geser heals Anton, he blames him for killing the vampire, while in the Russian cut he tells him he (Anton) spent three and a half years in the office and got used to it, and now it was time for him to fight, then comforts him, as Anton already blames himself.
- Further in that discussion, when Geser sees in Anton's memory, Anton's explanations why he directed his flashlight towards Svetlana in the metro vary between versions. In the international version he says at first he thought Svetlana was a vampire, but then he understood she was "something even worse". In the Russian version he says he spotted a vortex over her and used the flashlight in an attempt to destroy the vortex, but it was too powerful and kept growing.
- Olga's explanation to Yegor of the concept of the Others was redubbed. In the Russian cut it's shorter, and when Anton turns off the TV in the living room and turns on a small TV so he could watch the news, the small TV is not on mute, as opposed to what we see in the international cut.
- The legend Geser tells is different between versions. In the international cut, he tells about the virgin of Byzantium and how her appearance foreshadows a final battle. In the Russian cut, he starts by explaining the legend of the virgin, then proceeds on saying the exact same things that were told during the prologue.
When Anton checks if Svetlana's mother is an Other or not, in the Russian cut, Semyon says she looks like a witch, and Anatoliy becomes really mad, shouting "It's not her!!!", then quickly calms down; it doesn't happen in the international version. Moreover, in the International cut, Svetlana's picture on the computer is exactly as she is seen in the metro. In the Russian cut, her picture shows her without glasses, with a different haircut and smiling.
In the international version, when Anton checks his own file, he is astonished by finding out Yegor is his son. In the Russian version he knew it already, and when he reads his file he is astonished by the line "capable of murder", as he still blames himself for what happened to Andrei the vampire.
When Alyssa and her fellow Dark Other follow the vampire, they both talk in the international version. In the Russian version, the guy is the only one to talk.
Some swear words were taken away from the Russian cut and restored in the international version.
In the international cut, Zavulon plays his video game twice: first during Alyssa's concert (he loses), then while Anton is at Yegor's (he wins). In the Russian cut, he plays both times during Alyssa's concert, first he wins, then he loses.
A clip from a Russian-dubbed version of "Buffy vs. Dracula", an episode of the U.S. TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer is added in the U.S. version. The English-dubbed film uses the original audio from the episode. In the original cut, it was a clip from the Russian children's show Domovoy (from an episode where a titular character went up against vampires).
The song "Nochnoi Dozor" by the Russian band Uma2rman in the Credits has been replaced by an English-language song. In the U.S. version, it is "Fearless" by The Bravery, in other international releases it is "Shatter" by Feeder.

[edit] Novel vs. film

Although the movie had one of the biggest budgets in the history of Russian filmmaking, there were still restraints on its content, especially given the length of the original three-hundred page, three-part book. Some of the changes made were small and insignificant; others significantly altered the nature of the plot. So, the film doesn't precisely follow the contents of the book - rather, the blockbuster is composed of different episodes, found in both "Night Watch" and "Day Watch" books by Sergey Lukyanenko. In the film certain scenes were reassessed, the plot line (as a chain of episodes and logic links between them) has been significantly modified. The major changes are listed below.

[edit] Major differences

In the Movie Prologue there are Others that look like Katya and Ilya and Ignat the latter of whom was only in the Russian cut.
In the book Anton was not a seer but a magician of the second grade.
In the movie, the use of spells, power amulets and shapeshifting was significantly diminished compared to the book The Night Watch. In the movie, Tiger Cub shapeshifts only once for a couple of seconds, and Bear doesn't shapeshift at all, while in the book, they do it every time they attack. The Twilight, which was an important background element in the book, was barely used in the movie. The book deals with the technique of entering the Twilight by raising your shadow, the different levels within it, etc. The movie's director explained that he never liked magic, so all magical aspects were severely downplayed.
While the movie is focused more on the action of the novel, the book is much more thoughtful. The novel focuses on the moral ambiguities the Night Watch is forced to face in a situation where it cannot openly oppose the Dark and are forced to run intrigues which could hurt its own members. The original version–produced by Channel One in Russia–attempts to touch on these thoughtful issues, but the international cut (also known as the Fox version) has neglected these points through editing.
In the movie, each Other joins either the Light or the Dark through a free choice. In the book, it's more a matter of their own nature and for some people how they're feeling when they first enter the Twilight.
The opening scene of the movie wasn't in the book (it's taken from Day Watch), nor was it ever mentioned or alluded to. In the movie, Anton Gorodetskiy visited a witch in hopes that she would use magic to get his wife back. In the book, this incident took place in the beginning of Day Watch, the second installment of the tetralogy, and also the witch's customer was not Anton, but a woman called Natasha who wanted to get her husband back.
In the movie, Yegor is Anton's son. In the book, they aren't related (Sergei Lukyanenko explained that this change was a result of a "glitch" in the script). In the fourth novel Last Watch, Yegor tells Anton that he had a dream in which he was Anton's son and experienced events from the movie.
In the movie, Yegor is the Great One whose coming was foretold, who will shift the balance of the final battle between Light and Dark. In the book, there is no such prophecy and the boy has mediocre potential. He's just a pawn the Dark put into the game to distract Anton from Svetlana, the true focus of the struggle, who really does have incredible powers. However, the books have their own "Great One", a messiah, but it is Anton's and Svetlana's daughter.
In the movie, Alyssa showed Yegor and Anton that back in 1992, Anton was willing to kill Yegor (who was an unborn child at the time). This effectively led Yegor to choose the Dark. In the book, Alyssa forced Anton to tell Yegor the whole truth. This forced Anton to reveal that Yegor was manipulated by the Light Others for the sake of the greater good. Yegor leaves the roof, disgusted with both the Light and the Dark. For the moment, his future is uncertain (he remains absolutely neutral). (But is recognized as dark in night watch book 2 "among my own kind" where the maverick is drawn to him as one of his victims, though he does eventually sustain a neutral bias.)
In the movie, Zavulon's name seems to be very famous even among Light ones, in the book Anton doesn't learn it until he meets him speaking with Geser.
So is Geser's name. Everyone in the book calls him Boris Ignatievitch and ignores his real name, while in the movie Boris Invanovich Geser seems to be the character's full name and everyone refers to him by it.
In the movie, Geser and Zavulon are and always have been the supreme leaders of the forces of Light and Darkness. In the books, they are the heads of the branches in/around Russia, (they answer to superiors who have withdrawn from the world as they grow older and more remote from humanity) and have not always held that position - in the novel TWILIGHT WATCH Zavulon is described as having been promoted to his current position at some time since the 1930s.
In the movie, Kostya's father is a butcher and his mother is dead. In the book, Kostya lives with both parents and his father is a handyman.
In the movie, Bear's real name is Ilya. In the book, Ilya and Bear are two different persons. Also, in the Russian Cut, at one point, Semyon calls Tiger Cub Lena. In the book, Lena and Tiger Cub are two different persons, and Tiger Cub's real name is Katya.
In the movie, Alyssa is a brunette and sings in a band. In the book, Alyssa is a redhead and has no musical career.
In the movie, Olga turns from her owl form into her human form with splashes of ooze and feathers, and stays human until the end of the movie. In the book, Olga stays mostly in her owl form and can only be human for a half an hour every day, her transformations are instantaneous. She spends most of the first part of the book hidden in the Gloom, sitting on Anton's shoulder. She becomes human again later, thanks to Geser's manipulations with the Truce. Moreover, in the book she can speak while in her owl form, while in the movie she can't.
There is no plane trapped in the vortex in the book, however a plane crash from a year ago is mentioned.
In the movie, the vortex is made of crows (a pun on the Russian word for the vortex: "voronka", while "voron" means crow in Russian). In the book, the vortex is a black tornado visible only by the Others.
In the movie, the Gloom is peopled with mosquitoes, while in the book, it's full of blue moss.
In the Russian version of the movie, Ignat is engaged to a girl, while in the book he is single and either gay (as he rants about having to charm a woman) or bisexual.
In the movie, the Night Watch's cover is City Light Company (in Russian: "Gorsvet"). In the book this is not the case (however, in the book Final Watch, it is mentioned that Gorsvet used to be one of Night Watch's covers).
The Gloom as portrayed in the movie has nothing to do with the way it was described in the book. In a behind-the-scenes article, author Sergey Lukyanenko explained that the filmmakers originally wanted to depict the Gloom closer to the way it was in the book. However, after the Fellowship of the Ring movie came out, the filmmakers realised that the original take on the Gloom was strikingly similar to the shadowy realm Frodo entered every time he put on the ring. Thus, the depiction of the Gloom was altered to avoid accusations of plagiarism.

[edit] Product placement in the film

- Nescafe is advertised in the supermarket.
- When Ignat scans the Nescafe into the till for the shop assistant, he says "a good taste, a good beginning" - the Nescafe tag line.
To find about events happening in Moscow, a character uses the Rambler Russian web portal.
A Nokia mobile phone is visible.
Anton's phone and some of the advertisements in the background feature the Russian mobile operator MTS.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Official sites

[edit] Fan Sites

Virtual and real world of Watches - site about Others in Russia
Into the Gloom: A Night Watch Fan Site operated by fans
www.lightordark.com: A community for Night Watch Fans - owned by Twentieth Century Fox
World of Patrols - Czech center of others

[edit] References

^ Twilight Watch on IMDB
^ Box office business at IMDb
^ Alain Bielik (February 17, 2006). "Night Watch: Cold Hard VFX from Russia". VFXWorld.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-26.
^ Review of Frightfest 2005

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