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Only "Old Men" Are Going Into Battle

1973 film by Leonid Bykov

Only "Old Men" Are Going Into Battle (Russian: В бой идут одни «старики») is an iconic 1973 Soviet war drama film produced in the USSR about World War II fighter pilots, written and directed by Leonid Bykov, who also played the lead role as the squadron commander nicknamed Maestro.

Maestro

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  • (returns to base with a captured Messerschmitt instead of the Yak) Makarych! Take the vehicle! See, changed without looking! You can hold on to the tail, the dragon doesn't bite anymore.
  • (returns to base with a horse instead of a plane) Makarych! Take the vehicle! See, changed without looking! Sorry, they didn't have a tank.
  • You’re not obliged to be a pilot, we'll teach you to fly anyway... but you do have to be a musician!
    • This quote is a paraphrase of famous lines from Nikolai Nekrasov's poem: You’re not obliged to be a poet,/ but you do have to be a citizen.
  • (Aleksandrov crashed the plane on his first training flight) Well. Remove him from flying. Don't give him 100 grams. Appoint him as the airfield duty officer... for all eternity! Grass-hop-per!!!
  • War is transient, but music is eternal.
  • We've no harp, so take a tambourine!
  • Love... Seryoga and I walked from Brest to Stalingrad with love. And then from Stalingrad to here, to the Dnieper, with love. I will be able to fly this route in a hundred years without a map. Because there are graves of the guys from Singing squadron everywhere.
  • (reads Romeo's report) "I want to get married, request permission." Well, it's good idea. The main thing is, it's just in time.
  • Let's live!

Grasshopper

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  • By the way, where is my 100 grams for my victory? Calm down, I don't use to drink. But it's a matter of principle!
  • People, humanity must someday understand that hatred destroys. Only love creates.
  • Romeo of Tashkent became sad, when Juliet flew away with her biplane.
  • Have a walk, Vasya!

Skvortsov

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  • Chatterboxes... They're used to saying: "The German is a coward, the German is afraid of a head-on attack, he'll definitely turn away!" But mine didn't turn away. So much so that... my wings flew off: one to the left, other to the right. I came to on the ground... the "Yak" was burning out, and there is ... the cherry tree in blossom in front of my eyes.
  • Guys, let's live! (last words in his life)

Dialogue

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Ivan Fyodorovich: (won his first air victory right now) I shot it down! I shot him down! I shot, Comrade Commander!
Vano: Oops, what did you do?!
Alyabyev: We'll have to call your parents to the principal.
(newbie pilots are introduced to their technicians)
Romeo: What, you don't like me? Why are you looking at me like that?
Technician: You're my fifth...
Grasshopper: (has never been in combat yet, but speaks very confidently and emotionally) After hard and grueling dogfights, when you go into a head-on attack... when the distorted face of a German ace flashes before your eyes... when you see... (touches the polka dots on the curtain Zoya and Masha are changing behind) ... rivets on enemy planes... we, fighter pilots, need an emotional release. And music helps us with this, because everything is transient, but music is eternal. And as Shakespeare said in his eighteenth son... net... (Zoya and Masha appear from behind the curtain in uniform with officer's shoulder straps and decorations)
Masha: Hi, boys!
Grasshopper: Hi... girls...
Zoya: So what did Shakespeare say?
Grasshopper: Uh... mm... hmm.
Zoya: And not in the eighteenth, but... in the nineteenth?
Masha: In the nineteenth.
Zoya: In the nineteenth sonnet Shakespeare said... Have a walk, Vasya!
Maestro: (boarding a plane) Makarych, there are persistent rumors at Hitler's headquarters that some irresponsible technicians crosses some Soviet falcons before a combat sortie.
Makarych: Everybody at Hitler's headquarters are a nutcase. (sneakily crosses the Maestro)
Technician #1: Do you know what the hardest thing in our job is?
Technician #2: Tinkering with the engine when it's thirty below zero.
Makarych: The hardest thing in our job is waiting.
Masha: How do you say "sky" in your language?
Romeo: Osman.
Masha: And "earth"?
Romeo: Yer.
Masha: "Cherry"?
Romeo: Olcha. But it's not a cherry, it's an apple tree.
Masha: Yes, yes. Well, it's all the same...
Romeo: It smells like home. The poplar is the tree of my homeland. Only ours are tall, pyramidal...
Masha: And how do you say "house"?
Romeo: Men sezne subamam.
Masha: Such a long word?
Romeo: It's in Uzbek... I love you, Masha.
(final dialogue near Masha and Zoya's grave)
Makarych: When the war ends, we’ll come back here, we’ll walk through these places… whoever’s left alive...
Maestro: And we’ll call the best symphony orchestra. In tailcoats. The conductor will come up. I’ll go up to him and say…
Makarych: Let them play for us...
Maestro: No, you know… I’ll do it myself. I’ll say: “Sorry, maestro, let me do!” And we’ll sing “Smuglyanka” from beginning to end!..

Cast

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  • Leonid Bykov as Captain Alexey «Maestro» Titarenko, commander of the 2nd Singing squadron
  • Sergey Podgorny as Victor «Darkie» Shchedronov, fighter pilot
  • Sergei Ivanov as «Grasshopper» Aleksandrov, fighter pilot
  • Rustam Sagdullayev as «Romeo» Sagdullayev, fighter pilot
  • Yevgeniya Simonova as Masha, female bomber navigator
  • Olga Mateshko as Zoya, female bomber pilot
  • Vladimir Talashko as Sergey Skvortzov, fighter pilot, Maestro's wingman and best friend
  • Aleksei Smirnov as Makarych, Maestro's technician
  • Viktor Miroshnichenko as Ivan "Pop" Ermakov, the fighter regiment commander
  • Alim Fedorinsky as Alyabyev, fighter pilot
  • Vano Yantbelidze as Vano, fighter pilot
  • Aleksandr Nemchenko as Ivan Fedorovich, fighter pilot
  • Vilori Pashchenko as Vorobyev, fighter pilot
  • Gregory Hlady as fighter pilot of 1st squadron
  • Vladimir Volkov as political officer
  • Dmitri Mirgorodskiy as infantry captain
  • Yuri Sarantsev as Air Division commander
  • Valentin Grudinin as chief of Air Army intelligence department
  • Alexandr Milutin as fighter pilot
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