Moscow on the Hudson
is a 1984 American comedy drama film starring Robin Williams, and directed by Paul Mazursky. Williams plays a Russian circus musician who defects from the Soviet Union while on a visit to the United States. The film released on April 3, 1984.
Williams' co-stars in this film were Maria Conchita Alonso, Elya Baskin, Savely Kramarov, Alejandro Rey and Cleavant Derricks.
The movie's poster was involved in a 1987 court case involving violation of copyright. The court found that the poster violated Saul Steinberg's copyright for a 1976 New Yorker
cover. See Steinberg v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
, 663 F. Supp. 706 (S.D.N.Y. 1987).
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MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON TICKETS
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Plot
It's a bittersweet story set against the backdrop of the
Cold War pre-
perestroika years of the early 1980s. Vladimir Ivanov (Williams) a saxophonist with the
Moscow circus, ekes out a living but is hipper happy. He lives in a crowded apartment with his entire extended family, with no privacy to express his love for his girlfriend. He sucks up to his superior, standing in line for hours to buy shoes to obtain his favor. He cruises the streets, scrounging for black market gasoline for his tiny car. He buffers between his crazy grandfather and the
KGB, who want to arrest him for shouting
anti-Soviet slogans out the window.
As a rare treat, the circus troupe is sent to perform in
New York City. Ivanov's clown friend (played by
Elya Baskin), who has talked of little else but defecting, changes his mind at the last minute, and Ivanov, who had opposed the scheme as reckless and foolhardy suddenly decides to do it. He hides behind a perfume counter at Bloomingdale's, his head inadvertently nudging the pretty clerk's backside under her skirt. In a scene of comic drama and nobility, Williams stands up to his Soviet boss and demands asylum in the
United States.
From here, the movie takes an unexpected turn, as life in the Big Apple is not what Ivanov had expected. He must find a job, he speaks very little English, he's lonely and disoriented and afraid of being forcibly repatriated. He is forced to live in terribly poor neighborhoods, takes low paying and menial jobs, and finds that his welcome is not as warm as expected from Americans. In the end, although he finds that the
American Dream isn't what it seems, he learns that it can be whatever he wants it to be. The last scene is a poignant shot of Vladmir playing his saxophone on the street--something he could never have aspired to do in Moscow.
Trivia
The film features the late
Soviet comedic actor
Saveliy Kramarov, as a
KGB officer, in one of his first
Western film roles. Ironically, Kramarov was a Russian comedian who gave up a successful film career in his homeland for religious freedom and bit parts in films in the United States. He made 42 films in the former Soviet Union before he was allowed to leave in the early 1980s. This reality seems to mirror Vladimir's
defection to the U.S. in the film.
The three Russian actors; Saveliy Kramarov, Oleg Rudnik and
Elya Baskin also appear together in the film
2010 as
cosmonauts. Kramarov and Rudnik play the two KGB agents always shadowing Vladimir and Elya Baskin plays Vladimir's friend the circus clown. Stand up comedian,
Yakov Smirnoff, also has a minor role in the film.