History JustForFun / Goncharov

* ImprovedByTheReCut: An extreme case of YMMV. Which is better -- the Matteo cut? The studio/Scorsese cut? The Italian cut? The Russian -- [[MirthlessLaughter HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA]] yeah no, [[TheScrappy no one likes the Russian cut]].[[note]]The infamous "Russian Cut" is a subject of legend among the film community, and not just because almost every copy in existence was destroyed due to how horrid it was; the changes to the movie are ''astronomically'' bad, with issues including, but not limited to: Removing most of the harsh language and replacing almost the ''entire soundtrack'' with off-key Russian choir music, major scenes being rearranged or chopped out completely, inexplicable changes to character backstories (such as removing Ice-pick Joe's childhood in the orphanage and instead implying he was raised in Kosovo by an affluent but physically abusive uncle via a series of ''extremely'' poor internal monologues shoehorned into several scenes), and, most egregiously, renaming Andrey to "Bart" for half the movie, only to suddenly refer to him as Andrey again mid-dialogue just before the climax. There is a very healthy theory among film buffs that the Russian Cut was actually ''intentional'', with the top two theories being either a misguided and/or half-assed attempt at making the film more palatable to citizens of the U.S.S.R. or a convoluted form of corporate insurance fraud.[[/note]] Complicated by varying availability of the different cuts.

The movie is very loosely based on the obscure 1961 speculative fiction novella ''Jestem Goncharov'' by Irma M. Schuss. The novella itself is now out of print. The film was similarly difficult to obtain for many years, due to distribution following its initial limited theatrical run being tied up by [[ScrewedByTheLawyers conflicting translation rights]], the existence of at least seven [[ReCut alternate cuts]] of the film, rumored interference from the actual mafia, and a very... unorthodox advertising campaign which involved putting the ads not on billboards or movie theater walls, but on the tags for ''[[https://manywinged.tumblr.com/post/701431544322080768 boots]].'' For over two decades, many even considered it to be the MissingEpisode of Scorsese's canon, with Scorsese himself famously quipping that "We'll probably see ''Film/TheDayTheClownCried'' before we see ''Goncharov'' again." The film was finally released on DVD and VHS in 1998, and has seen several re-releases since, bringing renewed appreciation for this long-forgotten masterpiece.

** Birds in flight, which seem to crop up whenever someone makes a confession. Even if the birds are not visible, such as the rainy night scene where Goncharov admits his true feelings about Katy, they can be heard ruffling their feathers in the background.

* {{Catchphrase}}: Ernesto has "Nice one, boss!"

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Is it "Icepick Joe", "Ice-Pick Joe" or "Ice Pick Joe"? Even the official materials can't keep it consistent!

* FemmeFatale: Katya's arc infamously deconstructs the archetype. She's a very broken woman whose lost her will to live.

*** The last images in the film are also referring to the poem, showing Vinnie's drugstore, then the street and finally a street lamp.

* FreudianExcuse: As the orphanage flashback reveals, [[spoiler:Icepick Joe has this in spades. Narrowly escaping a lobotomy as a child changes a person.]]

* HarsherInHindsight: Goncharov's vision of a post-Soviet Russia is eerily close to [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell what actually ended up happening to the former Eastern-bloc]], with [[TotalitarianGangsterism the state essentially becoming a front for]] [[TheMafiya organised crime]], despite it not happening until 18 years after the movie was released.

* DeletedScene: The Goncharov/Michailovs' time in England was cut out entirely.

** The submarine "''Seekuh''" that Andrey uses during the (ultimately disastrous) jewelry has clearly seen better days, being a rusty old German U-boat that survived the war and escaped scrapping or becoming a trophy, only to be, in the words of the ship's cook, "worked and beaten like a fucking dog" doing smuggling runs in the Mediterranean, with the engineers essentially having to resort to cannibalizing and jury-rigging parts just to keep her afloat and running, and they only ''barely'' manage to accomplish this. The poor state of the ''Seekuh'' ultimately attributes to the heist's failure when its engine backfires and belches a thick cloud of exhaust smoke, completely blowing Andrey's cover and alerting the authorities.

** Ice Pick Joe's car, a ''positively ancient''-looking Citroen 2CV, puts the ''Seekuh'' to shame. The ''Seekuh'' at least, seemed to at least have an attempt by the crew to keep her ship-shape, while Joe's Citroen looks like it was barely even ''cleaned'' since it was built. The engine is almost constantly wheezing, the chassis is practically ''held together'' by the rust infesting it, and its brakes are practically nonexistent, with Joe at one point stopping the jalopy not by pressing on the pedal, but by sticking his foot out the door and dragging on the ground and ''tying it to a light pole'' to keep it in place. Joe reveals that the the car isn't even his, outright admitting that he stole it from an associate, who later calls him not to confront him over the theft, but to ''profusely thank Joe'' for finally ridding him of "that accursed contraption of Satan". Joe sheds no tears when the Citroen meets its end, its rope-based parking brake eventually tearing loose and sending it rolling into the harbor, instead giving the Citroen a final eulogistic quip as it sinks beneath the water.
--> '''Ice Pick Joe:''' I think it's been [[DrivenToSuicide trying to do that for a while now]].

** The ''Seekuh'', the old U-boat only seen in Andrey's flashback, was supposed to play a larger role, becoming Andrey's (and eventually Goncharov's) primary method of smuggling and eluding the authorities, and would ultimately have been tragically sacrificed in a DyingMomentOfAwesome battle with Mitrov (see above) but most of the ''Seekuh's'' scenes ended up on the cutting room floor because Scorsese (somewhat justifiably) felt like it "was turning [his] film into a war movie". It ''was'' rather prominently seen in the background of several shots involving Mitrov, but when his appearances were cut out, so were the ''Seekuh's'', apart from Andrey's aforementioned flashback.

** The ''Seekuh'', the old U-boat only seen in Andrey's flashback, was supposed to play a larger role, becoming Andrey's (and eventually Goncharov's) primary method of smuggling and eluding the authorities, and would ultimately have been tragically sacrificed in a DyingMomentOfAwesome battle with Mitrov (see above) but most of the ''Seekuh'''s scenes ended up on the cutting room floor because Scorsese (somewhat justifiably) felt like it "was turning [his] film into a war movie". It ''was'' rather prominently seen in the background of several shots involving Mitrov, but when his appearances were cut out, so were the ''Seekuh'''s, apart from Andrey's aforementioned flashback, though it ''can'' be (barely) seen moored to a pier during Mitrov's single scene, but only in the distant background and mostly obscured by the dark lighting and fog.

** The ''Seekuh'', the old U-boat only seen in Andrey's flashback, was supposed to play a larger role, becoming Andrey's (and eventually Goncharov's) primary method of smuggling and eluding the authorities, and would ultimately have been tragically sacrificed in a DyingMomentOfAwesome, but it ended up on the cutting room floor due to Scorsese feeling like it "was turning the film into a war movie".

** Ice Pick Joe's car, a ''positively ancient''-looking Citroen 2CV, puts the ''Seekuh'' to shame. The ''Seekuh'' at least, seemed to at least have an attempt by the crew to keep her ship-shape, while Joe's Citroen looks like it was barely even ''cleaned'' since it was built. The engine is almost constantly wheezing, the chassis is practically ''held together'' by the rust infesting it, and its brakes are practically nonexistent, with Joe at one point stopping the jalopy not by pressing on the pedal, but by sticking his foot out the door and dragging on the ground and ''tying it to a light pole'' to keep it in place. Joe reveals that the the car isn't even his, outright admitting that he stole it from an associate, who later calls him not to confront him over the theft, but to ''profusely thank Joe'' for finally ridding him of "that accursed contraption of Satan". Joe sheds no tears when the Citroen meets its end, its rope-based parking break eventually tearing loose and sending it rolling into the harbor, instead giving the Citroen a final eulogistic quip as it sinks beneath the water.

** The submarine "''Seekuh''" that Andrey uses during the (ultimately disastrous) jewelry has clearly seen better days, being a rusty old German U-boat that survived the war and escaped scrapping or becoming a trophy, only to be, in the words of the ship's cook, "worked and beaten like a fucking dog" doing smuggling missions in the Mediterranean, with the engineers essentially having to resort to cannibalizing and jury-rigging parts just to keep her afloat and running, and they only ''barely'' manage to accomplish this. The poor state of the ''Seekuh'' ultimately attributes to the heist's failure when its engine backfires and belches a thick cloud of exhaust smoke, completely blowing Andrey's cover and alerting the authorities.

** Creator/JohnWayne appears as an odd uncharacteristic cameo as an aging captain of the surplus German U-Boat seen in Andrey's flashback of the botched Naples jewelry heist.

** Creator/JohnWayne appears as an odd uncharacteristic cameo as an aging captain of the surplus German [[UsefulNotes U-Boat]] seen in Andrey's flashback of the botched Naples jewelry heist.

** Creator/JohnWayne appears as an odd uncharacteristic cameo as the aging German captain of the surplus [[UsefulNotes U-Boat]] used during the Andrey's flashback of the botched jewelry heist in Naples.

** Creator/JohnWayne appears as an odd uncharacteristic cameo as the aging German captain of the surplus [[UsefulNotes U-Boat]] used botched jewelry heist in Andrey's flashback to his younger mob days in Naples. Matteo [=JWHJ0715=] managed to avoid forcing Wayne to put on an convincing German accent by simply giving him ''no'' lines of dialogue, instead having him sullenly stare into space whenever he was on camera.

[[caption-width-right:350:The Greatest Mafia Movie (N)ever Made[[note]]Poster by Beelzeebub on Tumblr[[/note]]]]