kongisking
Active member
You all know I like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. One of the genuine highlights for me was Igor Jijikine as Colonel Dovchenko. He had genuine physical menace, an effective scowl, was efficient and competent as heck, and got a delightfully nasty death scene in the Giant Mook tradition.
That said, I've recently thought about the exact scale of his 'villain'-ness. I know the novelization went out of its way to give him a good number of bastardly moments and sadistic bits, but in the actual movie...he honestly strikes me as just an incredibly focused, efficient, does-what-has-to-be-done soldier. A lot of what he does is NOT nice, but from his perspective, its completing the mission for Spalko. He doesn't really ever do things that cross the line.
Most of his actions make sense from a strategic standpoint (gunning down the guards at Hangar 51, refusing to give ammunition to a prisoner with a, well, history of being sneaky) or an intimidation standpoint (punching Indy and preparing to hit him again for disrespect). I repeat: I don't condone lots of his methods. But from the character's point of view? I understand it being reasonable.
But not only that, I thought he had a couple really fun humanizing moments, such as tossing Indy's hat back to him in the camp, as a sly way of saying "cocky American, I can be cocky too!" and his exasperation at the argument in the back in the truck. I think he's a strangely endearing thug, and he never half-asses anything. Hell, he's even got a semblance of fair play: he legitimately allowed Indy a second to go get his hat!
So, basically, I kind of wonder if Dovchenko was really a malicious dude, or just a damn determined, dedicated-to-the-mission soldier. I'd love to start a general discussion about the ethics and such of the Russians' actions in KOTCS, even though I know such has been discussed before. But for this instance, maybe we can focus on Dovchenko purely?
That said, I've recently thought about the exact scale of his 'villain'-ness. I know the novelization went out of its way to give him a good number of bastardly moments and sadistic bits, but in the actual movie...he honestly strikes me as just an incredibly focused, efficient, does-what-has-to-be-done soldier. A lot of what he does is NOT nice, but from his perspective, its completing the mission for Spalko. He doesn't really ever do things that cross the line.
Most of his actions make sense from a strategic standpoint (gunning down the guards at Hangar 51, refusing to give ammunition to a prisoner with a, well, history of being sneaky) or an intimidation standpoint (punching Indy and preparing to hit him again for disrespect). I repeat: I don't condone lots of his methods. But from the character's point of view? I understand it being reasonable.
But not only that, I thought he had a couple really fun humanizing moments, such as tossing Indy's hat back to him in the camp, as a sly way of saying "cocky American, I can be cocky too!" and his exasperation at the argument in the back in the truck. I think he's a strangely endearing thug, and he never half-asses anything. Hell, he's even got a semblance of fair play: he legitimately allowed Indy a second to go get his hat!
So, basically, I kind of wonder if Dovchenko was really a malicious dude, or just a damn determined, dedicated-to-the-mission soldier. I'd love to start a general discussion about the ethics and such of the Russians' actions in KOTCS, even though I know such has been discussed before. But for this instance, maybe we can focus on Dovchenko purely?