Total Balalaika Show
Total Balalaika Show
| 06 May 1994 (USA)
Total Balalaika Show Trailers

A 57-minute documentary of a Helsinki concert featuring the Leningrad Cowboys and the Alexandrov Red Army Choir and Ballet, who collaborate on a number of US Rock songs sung in English (like "Sweet Home, Alabama") as well as more traditional Russian songs like the "Volga Boatman."

Reviews
Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
Organnall Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,
Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
kalkaanslag-62205 About 6 years ago when i was 12, i believe, i went to the theaters to see this movie with a friend and our mothers. I understand that because that was such a long time ago and i was still so young, this review might not be completely reliable. However I still perfectly remember how much of a waste of time I found this movie to be and that is why I'm not going to make myself go trough that terrible experience again.This is in fact the only rating of 1 that i have ever given because I feel like 1's are given too easily and because every other movie/ TV show i have ever seen has had at least one moment that I didn't hate.In fact, this "thing" can not even be called a movie. It's a horrible concert with horrible music from a horrible band with horrible hair, meant to have a horrible deeper meaning about a horrible war that gave me a horrible experience. I do appreciate deeper meanings in movies except if those deeper meanings are covered in an hour long pile of sh*t that is being bombarded at me.Also because this is a concert, it has no story, and no spoilers, so i have just spoiled all 0 of the 0 spoilers.If you don't mind, i'm going to eat some ice cream and think of something more fun (for example everything else in life) and I suggest you do the same thing instead of watching this "thing"1/10
Patrick Borer (bakchu) The Red Army Choir performing "Happy Together" with a Finnish band called the Leningrad Cowboys? To top it, even singing "Finlandia" at Helsinki's Senate Square? This concert, filmed in 1993, would have seemed rather unthinkable a few years earlier. It's still a surreal experience to watch it on DVD: the Russian choir and orchestra in stiff uniforms, bearing a mostly somber expression combined with the ludicrously styled, eccentric Leningrad Cowboys and their often parodistic rock demeanour. Remembering the time of Cold War, it is also strangely touching. But what about the music? Well, I have to say that it's not bad at all. Quite the contrary, it's surprisingly good. The Red Army Choir's unnamed lead singer does impressive work together with the Cowboys, and I'm sure that the popular Russian songs sound exactly as they should, although the selection can't be called particularly original (neither the choice of Western songs), but that was probably exactly the right decision for a concert of this kind. It's energetic and in its incomparable blend of silliness and really serious musicianship (on both "sides") something to behold, indeed.
nipsu1 I was living in Lahti when this show was broadcast on Finnish television.I was completely stunned by the severe clash of cultures.On the one hand,a group of comically dressed musicians,very competent and visually appealing obviously spoofing the teddy boy craze and on the other hand one of the best choruses in the world dressed in their military finest. You could not expect the two divergent musical styles to get along,much less complement.... But it all works well,with the wonderful antique tractor on full display and the Red Army chorus singing Sweet Home Alabama.What a wonderful show it must have been to see live.It seems like the entire city of Helsinki was there. Hey that is only 500,000 but that's a lot of Finns in one place.
Timothy Damon It's unlikely you'll ever see a concert film quite like the one shot on 12 June 1993 in Helsinki, Finland with the Leningrad Cowboys and the Alexandrov Red Army Choir and Dancers. 13 songs: "Finlandia" by Sibelius; "Let's Work Together" - with the drummer on a stage designed like a tractor, guitars in the shape of tractors and some air guitar action; "Volga Boatmen"; "Happy Together"; "Delilah"; "Knocking on Heaven's Door" with 6 women dancers in folk costume; "Oh Field" (the incongruity of the solemness of the Red Army Choir coupled with the Leningrad Cowboys lying flat on their backs, hair sticking up vertically a foot or so, and waving the boots with the curly toes back and forth cracked me up); Cossack dancing in "Kalinka"; "Gimme All Your Loving"; numerous dance troupes accompanying "Jewelry Box"; "Sweet Home Alabama"; "Dark Eyes"; and closing with "Those Were The Days" with Kirsi Tykkylainen (who also sings this song in the 1992 short of the same name).The set designs were quite amusing, different aspects being revealed by lighting chances throughout the performance. The concert was bookended by a scene at the beginning titled "Moscow, May 28, 1993" with one of the Leningrad Cowboys and some functionary signing a document and a bust of Lenin spotlighted at the ending.