This year the great goalkeeper of Dynamo and the USSR national team Lev Yashin would have turned 90 years old. In honor of this event, director Vasily Chiginsky, with the support of Dynamo, created a film about the great goalkeeper. The weekly Football tells about a new film about Yashin.
In the description of the film it was written that “this motion picture shows love for sports, for life and the only woman who stood at the gates of family happiness while Yashin stood for Dynamo. This is indeed the case. After all, Lev Ivanovich was very fond of sports and Dynamo.
The main role in the film was played by Alexander Fokin. The actor really looks like a goalkeeper, he really looked good in the place of the famous goalkeeper.
The movie shows bright moments from the life of Lev Yashin – his unsuccessful debut for a Moscow club, transition to hockey, return to football, a wedding, the 1960 European Championship final, an offer from Real Madrid president Santiago Bernabeu, a goalkeeper’s mistake in the decisive match of the World Cup 62, game for a double and a farewell match.
The sad moment in the film comes in the middle of the film. When Lev Yashin became the hero of the 1960 European Championship final, all the fans admired the football player. But after his unsuccessful game against the Chilean national team, the journalist sent a message that it was the goalkeeper who was to blame for the defeat of the USSR.
He was painted on the door with all sorts of ugly words: “Hole”, “Retire” and others. It even got to the point that during the game for Dynamo he was booed, shouted negative chants, after which Yashin simply left the field.
There is one flaw in the film. In fact, everything is done to the smallest detail, except for the stadiums. While watching a movie, it is felt as if the match of the USSR championship and the final of the European championship are being held in the same arena. They were too similar.
The end of the film makes you cry, as it is always sad to watch the farewell match. The atmosphere, of course, was mesmerizing – the team of world stars arrived in the USSR, overcrowded Luzhniki stadiums. When Lev Yashin asked for a replacement, the audience began to applaud, the same was done by the players on the field, the referee also showed the tears of the commentator of that match, who said: “It is not Yashin who is leaving, a whole era is leaving.”
But the main thing that the director of the film wanted to tell about is the place that is most dear to Lev Ivanovich. For him it was the gate. The film ends with a shot when the great goalkeeper asks to take him to the stadium of the “blue-white”. The old goalkeeper decides to say goodbye to the field and the goal by going up to the post.
The film exactly shows the character of Lev Ivanovich. After watching the movie, you understand that he was a really great goalkeeper, a football fan. This accuracy is conveyed, it seems, by the fact that the wife and support of goalkeeper Valentin Yashin participated in the making of the film.