HIGH, WIDE AND HANDSOME!
ALEXANDER NEVSKY ON HIS NEW FILM, THE WIDE WEST, AND HIS LONG, EVENTFUL JOURNEY FROM MOSCOW TO AN ARIZONA MOVIE RANCH!
The Wide West, following Gunfight at Rio Bravo and Taken from Rio Bravo, is the 3rd Western movie collaboration of star and producer Alexander Nevsky, director Joe Cornet, screenwriter Craig Hamann, composer Sean Murray, and cinematographer Sam Wilkerson. The seemingly absurd premise of a pair of Sumo wrestling stars stranded in the Old West is, surprisingly, based on – or suggested by – facts: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. In gratitude, and knowing the President’s interest in martial arts, particularly Judo and Jiu-Jitsu, a contingent of Japanese athletes, including Sumo wrestlers, was dispatched to Washington to entertain Roosevelt, sailing to California, then making their way to the East Coast. In The Wide West, two of those Sumo wrestlers, Daiki (Hiroki Sumi) and Ichi (Takashi Ichinojo) find themselves stranded in a Western desert town, in mortal conflict with an outlaw gang led by villain Jarrett Kingrey (director Joe Cornet), and reluctantly befriended by a Russian immigrant, a gambler known as Max (Nevsky). It’s an amusing film that, happily, doesn’t take itself too seriously, except when it comes to action.
Alexander Nevsky is himself a
world-class athlete and an immigrant. The three-time Mr. Universe, actor,
producer, director, grew up picturing himself in movies, but not necessarily in
Westerns. He loved the genre, but getting access to them in Russia was no
simple task. “When I was a kid, we couldn't watch westerns from the United
States, but we still watched some Easterns, as they call it, because in East
Germany, they will make westerns. In Yugoslavia, they made westerns with Gojko
Mitic, who was a big star at the time, playing Chingachgook (note: from James
Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer). And in Easterns, Indians were good
guys, and all the cowboys, the army, they were bad guys, so basically it was
all in reverse. But we loved it and we loved the culture.”
Nevsky wouldn’t have a chance to
see the real Hollywood product in Russia until the 1990s, with the rise of
bootleg videotapes. “The Soviet Union was collapsing, and pirated videos
suddenly appeared at all those kiosks close to subway stations. They put two
Hollywood movies on one video tape, and I was buying them every evening when I
was going back home from my University or from the gym. I had old Korean VCR with
my old Russian tv, only black and white picture,” he recalls with a laugh. “But
even in black and white, it was almost like a window to completely different,
magic world. And the funny thing is, those Soviet pirates who made those tapes,
they didn't understand the difference between huge movies and small movies, right?
They can put like Arnold's $40 million Commando or Predator, and
second movie could be Lady Dragon with Cynthia Rothrock, or a Don “the Dragon”
Wilson picture, because it was also action picture. It was all Hollywood,
right? It was all magic. And now as a producer, I understand that piracy's bad.
But sometimes it could be good, and it could give a lot of people a great
escape, at least for a couple of hours. So you never know.”
He wasn’t a natural-born Mr.
Universe. “I had a little scoliosis. I was tall already, but when I started to
lift weights, I was young and very skinny, I didn't have muscles at all.” So he
trained.
“My background in bodybuilding and
in boxing taught me to be prepared for hard work. I was happy when I won Mr.
Universe, and when I won a second and third one, but before I started to win,
it was like decades of preparation and training.”
He came to the United States in
1999 well-prepared not only physically, but educationally. “I graduated from
Moscow State University of Management, and I had my PhD in Economics.” He’d already had considerable success at home.
“I was established TV star in Russia, a bodybuilding star. I had my own TV show
on Channel One Russia, and 20 million people watched my TV show every week. I
already wrote three books about bodybuilding and believing in yourself, and they
sold like hundreds of thousands of copies.
When I moved to Los Angeles, I just had student visa, because I became a
student at the UCLA, I started to study English, and later, I transferred to
Lee Strassberg Theater Institute where I started to learn acting.
“It was kind of like trip to the moon,
because Russian Americans all knew who I was, but Americans, they didn't have a
clue. I started from scratch and, like six months after I came, I started to
get some callbacks from auditions.”
His first big opportunity was an
athletic competition series. “Battle Dome was Columbia Tristar TV
show, kind of like American Gladiator. It was open call. I saw probably
300 huge guys. They told me, just wear black t-shirt, blue jeans. So when I
came, I saw like hundreds of huge guys in black t-shirts and blue jeans. Someone
was a little taller, someone was a little shorter, someone had smaller biceps,
someone had bigger biceps, but volumes of them! So when they call us back a
month later, it was just fifty guys, just 15 guys two months later, then it was
just five of us who they want to sign. When I saw the contract, of course it
was almost no money. It was scale and whatever, but it was the first time when
they described my character. It was like stupid stereotypical Russian, wearing
a red star on the back. And when I said to casting director and to producers, I
cannot play it, they looked at me like I was an idiot, because they chose me
out of 300, and I didn't want to do it. But again, Henry, I didn't come here to
promote stereotypes. I came here to crush stereotypes, but to be completely
honest with you, it was heartbreaking.
“Then one of my idols, Jean Claude
Van Damme, invited me to make a movie with him, called The Order, with
Charlton Heston and Brian Thompson, in 2000. Jean Claude was playing an adventurer
who was stealing things from museums. The great, late Jack Gilardi, vice
President of ICM, introduced me to Jean Claude and Sheldon Lettich, the
director of the film, who directed, in my opinion, best of Jean Claude's films
in ‘90s, like Double Impact. Sheldon and Jean Claude right away created
a part for me. I was happy, but when I read it, it was a security guard in some
museum in Kazakhstan: just scream something in Russian, and fight with Jean
Claude, and get killed by Jean. I explained it to them that I couldn't play
these stereotypical roles, because my Russian audience will not understand it. And
it was Sheldon who told me that, if I want to be a star, I should find a way to
produce, because here, unfortunately, if you big Russian, you will play
stereotypical roles. Back then it was heartbreaking. But I still think it was
the right choice because, how Sinatra sang it, I did it my way. And 11 years
later, Sheldon became executive producer of my director debut, Black Rose.”
I told Nevsky that my first job as
a screenwriter had been a film called Speedtrap (1977), which I’d
co-written with producer and Romanian immigrant Fred Mintz: we worked out the
story together, I did the actual writing, particularly the dialog, and we’d rewrite
it together. Nevsky’s first film as producer and star came in 2004. “I co-wrote
my very first English-language motion picture, Moscow Heat, which was
the great Michael York, and Joanna Pacula. It was the film which opened the
door for me into action genre. I was executive producer, it was my first
starring role and I co-wrote it with my American friend, Robert Madrid exactly
the way you worked with your friend from Romania. I'm proud to say that I also
created a story for my biggest one, Maximum Impact, which was written by
Ross Lamanna, who wrote the Rush Hour movies for Jackie Chan.”
So, how did Alexander Nevsky move
on to Westerns? It was because of a meeting between Nevsky and Western director
Joe Cornet, who were brought together by their composer. “Sean Murray, great
composer, introduced us to each other. Sean wrote music for Joe's Western, The
Promise, and he wrote music for my Black Rose. Sean told me that he
wants me to meet with his friend because he wants me to try a Western. Sean,
he's a great composer, but also he's a great friend. So I was honest with him. I
told him, of course I'll meet you with your friend, I'll be happy to, but come on:
me in a Western?” But they hit it off immediately. “Joe’s like a walking encyclopedia of Westerns.
I mean, all the knowledge he gave me, it was amazing. (With the) pirated videos
in Russia, that's when I became a huge fan of spaghetti Westerns, of Clint
Eastwood, the Sergio Leones, and John Wayne. John Wayne, I like him a lot
because he was tall and big, right? And his movies, they were kind of like, if
I can say, like clean Westerns, not so down-to-earth, like Sergio Leone
kind of Westerns. John Wayne's Westerns were bigger and brighter and more
positive. I just love him. But my point is, I was huge fan of Westerns, but I
never really imagined myself in a Western. So going back to end of 2020, those
conversations with Joe, he told me we should do a Western. ‘Trust me, you will
love the experience, you will love the film.’ And I told him, Joe, if we doing
something together, it shouldn't be just straight Western. Because my
background is in sport and bodybuilding. I was a boxer and kick-boxer. And good
thing about sport: sport will give you discipline. So you always know your strong points and your
weak points. I said, Joe, if we're making a movie together, it shouldn't be
just a Western. It should be an action western, so we can bring together my
favorite genre, which is action, and your favorite genre, which is Western.
“And that's how Gunfight at Rio
Bravo was born. And Joe did an amazing job because he was always positive,
he was always prepared, he was always very supportive. And before we started,
we had like four-and-a-half months, and he even gave me his horse to train
with, because I never rode a horse before. I never shot Western guns like
Winchester or Colts. Of course I shot a lot of modern guns. He helped a lot.
And by June, 2021, when we came to Arizona to make our first Western, I was
prepared. And it was complete fun. It wasn't easy at all, but it was complete
fun. And I brought my action guys with me. I brought Olivier Gruner and I
brought Art Camacho, who is a great fight choreographer, and I brought Matthias
Hues, and we all had fun. And thanks to Joe, we got a Western, like a real Spaghetti
Western. And thanks to my team, we also got an action movie.”
Also turning in a dynamic guest
performance in one of Nevsky’s Westerns is another martial arts legend, “My
great friend and colleague Cynthia Rothrock. I hope it was me and Joe who
inspired her to make her great action Western, Black Creek. Because
right before that, she made our Taken from Rio Bravo, and she was
amazing in it. We introduced her to everyone over there in Arizona, to John
Marrs, our armorer and also costar, and to other guys. She made her own Western,
which is great.” You can read my article about Black Creek, and my
interview with Cynthia Rothrock, here: https://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2025/04/black-creek-action-star-cynthia.html
Now that he’s had extensive
experience in both Action films and Westerns, which genre presents more
challenges? “To be honest with you, making Westerns is harder. It's much more
fun, but it's harder, because every time you're doing a film about something which
happened many years ago, you really should be authentic.” I wasn’t going to say
anything about his somewhat anachronistic costume, but he brought it up. “Now, saying that, of course you know I was
criticized because of my outfit in the films. Because even in the Westerns, I
always have cool leather jackets. With one simple reason, Henry, and again,
I'll be completely honest with you, because if we talk about business for a
second, I understand that a lot of your readers, they're huge fans of Western
genre, and they don't want to read about business side of film making. But we
both understand that it’s really important. If you talk about sales, if you
make any Western, you will almost always sell it in the United States. Because
United States has a huge culture of Westerns, huge fan base for Western genre
historically. But internationally, it's really hard to sell the Western, even
if it's a huge studio Western. And that's the reason why studios actually stopped
making big Westerns. So what I was doing as a producer, I was trying to put
together Action and a Western. So in America, film will be sold because it's a
Western, but internationally, we can sell it because it's an Action picture,
because Action always sells. And that's why even in Gunfight at Rio Bravo,
last 25 minutes of the film, I don't have my hat anymore. I just have my
leather jacket, and I’m killing people, right and left, in very cool way. It's
an Action picture, not just a Western. It's kind of the same thing in the Wide
West, because in the end I have, yes, old-fashioned sunglasses, old-fashioned
jacket, but still, I look like a Terminator,” he laughs, “in the Wild West. The
cigar, of course, is in homage to Arnold's movies. So that's how I approach it.”
As international as The Wide
West is, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that one of Nevsky’s major
influences in creating it was the Western that James Bond specialist Terrence
Young directed in 1971, Red Sun. “I think it was first Charles Bronson
film released in Japan. And it was first Toshiro Mifune film that really made
him popular in Europe and the United States. And Ursula Andress, she already
did the Bond picture, Dr. No. The producers, they played their cards so
smart, because they got American star, they got Japanese star, they got
established European star -- because Alain Delon wasn't just a French star. He
was one of the biggest European stars at the moment. They basically sold all
the territories, even before they made the movie. So it was a terrific business
model. Bronson, in Red Sun, he was my inspiration for my character Max.
Because when you watch my action pictures, and both Rio Bravo movies, I
always played like a stoic, hard-boiled action heroe. You don't have to ask me
twice to protect you, to help you,
In this one, I was playing a
different character, and Charles Bronson was my inspiration because in Red
Sun, if you remember, he is not playing your hero. No, he's just the guy
who's having fun. He wants to make money, he wants to get some revenge, but
mostly the money. And of course, basically, he's changing over the course of
the movie, but it's a different Charles Bronson.”
The Wide West is currently available exclusively
on XUMO Play, for free!
In this one, I was playing a
different character, and Charles Bronson was my inspiration because in Red
Sun, if you remember, he is not playing your hero. No, he's just the guy
who's having fun. He wants to make money, he wants to get some revenge, but
mostly the money. And of course, basically, he's changing over the course of
the movie, but it's a different Charles Bronson.”
The Wide West is currently available exclusively
on XUMO Play, for free! Just click the link below:
https://play.xumo.com/free-movies/the-wide-west/XM0XFMQGKZICWS
RUTA LEE REMEMBERS AUDIE MURPHY AND MAKING 'BULLET FOR A BADMAN'
While I’ll soon write reviews for
all 3, I recently had the pleasure of discussing one film from the set, 1964’s Bullett
for a Badman, directed by R.G. Springsteen, with one of its stars, the
still-lovely Ruta Lee, who recently turned 90. I highly recommend her
hilarious, fascinating memoir, Consider Your Ass Kissed.
In Badman, Ruta plays the
third point of a, while not a truly romantic triangle, a practical one, between
Audie Murphy and Darren McGavin. If the other actors’ names that she mentions
are not familiar, their faces would be. Alan Hale, Jr. was Skipper on Gilligan’s
Island. Genial George Tobias, a comic character in 100 movies, mostly at
Warner Brothers, is best remembered as Elizabeth Montgomery’s neighbor, Mr.
Kravitz, on Bewitched. Skip Homier made his name as a child actor
playing a Hitler Youth in Tomorrow, The World, and played many Western
villains, memorably in The Gunfighter. If you haven’t seen Bullet for
a Badman, you’re warned that there’s a big spoiler in Ruta’s first
sentence. “Audie was of course the good guy, Darren was the bad guy, and I got
shot with a bullet in my forehead somewhere in the movie. And my little
grandmother, that I had brought over from Lithuania, had never seen television
or the movies. She went screaming to my mother that I had been shot, and having
hysterics when she saw that movie. I had such fun, because Alan Hale was in
that movie, George Tobias, Skip Homeier. We laughed so hard. You know, it's
surprising that they ever got a clear shot of us not laughing because we'd be
out there and R. G. Springsteen, and God love him, he had a sense of humor too,
but we laughed and laughed and laughed. And darling, the leading man of course
was Audie, who was somewhat remote. You know, he didn't mix and mingle a lot,
which is kind of sad because he would have had such laughs with us. When you
have someone like George Tobias, who's been there, done it, seen it all, and
has a story to tell about everything he's ever done, when you've got Alan Hale
Jr., who carries on like a lunatic about things, and of course, Skippy Homeier
as well. And my darling, Darren McGavin who's full of piss and vinegar, oh God,
it was such fun! We were in St. George, Utah, but we travelled to a lot of
different places. But I loved the Westerns. I didn't like the idea of having to
get up at four to make it to the studio by five, so that you could be out on
location at six. But what was really nice was that chuckwagon, the trailer that
was the cooking wagon would be there at the location already. And you learned
from the cowboys what to eat and you'd have every day, a bacon and egg and
sausage and onion and tomato sandwich for breakfast. Boy, was that good! I can
smell it now. You know, when you're sitting outside and it's cold and the
coffee is there, and the sandwich is ready when you want it. Oh, that was
great!”
You can read my Ruta Lee Western
career article at the INSP blog, by clicking the link below:
Ruta Lee – Lithuanian-American Queen of the West
You can find Ruta Lee’s memoir at
Amazon by clicking the link below:
And you can purchase Audie
Murphy Collection V from Kino Lorber, including Bullet for a Badman,
by clicking the link below:
FILM REVIEWS:
EDDINGTON
Eddington is the new ‘Contemporary Western’
from the much-lauded writer-director of the Horror films Hereditary and
Midsommar, Ari Aster. He has a wonderful cast – Oscar winner Joaquin
Phoenix, double Oscar winner Emma Stone, 4-time Emmy nominee Pedro Pascal,
Oscar nominee Austin Butler. There are strong performances, and an intriguing
premise – what happens in a tiny New Mexico town when Covid divides its mask/no
mask residents politically during an election? I guess all that it lacks is a
plot. There are countless mystifying loose ends, absolutely no characters you
care about, and nothing Western besides the locale. It’s pointlessly, brutally in-your-face
violent, and if you’re going to call your movie a ‘black comedy’, you need
something comic to happen at some point. I counted 3 smirks in two and a half
hours. It’s currently in theaters.
BURY ‘EM DEEP
Bury ‘Em Deep is as unexpectedly enjoyable as Eddington
is disappointing. A slim-budget, legitimate period Western, it stars Robert
Bronzi, a Hungarian-born actor who has built a leading-man career – over a
dozen films so far – based on his uncanny resemblance to Charles Bronson. Here
he plays legendary bounty hunter Link Maddock; the kind they wrote dime novels
about. He makes a bad choice when he delivers a corpse to Sheriff Michael Pare
for the reward: the stiff is a relative of the lawman, and Maddock is shot
down, only to revive some 3 weeks later, nursed back from the brink by an
orphanage-running nun, Sister Marie (Rosanna Wyant). And wouldn’t you know it?
The bank is foreclosing on the orphanage. Maddock heads out for his hidden
cache of bounty cash, but is jumped, beaten, and again left for dead.
With the mortgage clock ticking,
Maddock is hunting down each member of the ‘posse’ that robbed him. While in
lesser hands, a simple checklist of killings would follow, the script by Eric
Zaldivar, from a story he devised with Mike Malloy, gives each malefactor their
own personal vignette, ala Hang ‘Em High or Chato’s Land. The
actors are not familiar, but the performances are varied and original. Wisely,
they are given most of the dialog, keeping Bronzi’s speeches down to
semi-intelligible bon mots. Incredibly, it’s the 60th feature
Michael Fredianelli has directed since 2008, and his skills as an editor and
cinematographer are also very much on display. It’s an often-stunning looking
film, and the final shootout in a pumpkin patch, while perhaps too long, is a
remarkable accomplishment of direction, photography and cutting.
Bury ‘Em Deep is available on Amazon Prime,
currently for $4. Below is the trailer.
AND THAT’S A WRAP!
Please check out the July/August True
West – here’s a link to my column looking at Val Kilmer’s first starring
Western, Billy the Kid, an update on the progress of Young Guns 3,
a DVD review of Was Once a Hero, and a chat with the director of the new
Pierce Brosnan/Samuel L. Jackson Western, Unholy Trinity.
https://truewestmagazine.com/article/val-kilmers-billy/
Here’s my most recent INSP blog,
Grit, Guns & Getting it Right!
https://www.insp.com/blog/what-tv-and-movies-get-right-and-wrong-about-cowboys/
And coming soon to the Round-up, I’ll
be reviewing Ron Howard’s new film, Eden, looking at recent Westerns on
the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage, and sharing my Lone Pine interview with
Robert Carradine, remembering John Wayne and The Cowboys!
Much obliged,
Henry
Copyright August 2025 by Henry C.
Parke – All Rights Reserved
This material is not to be used for
Artificial Intelligence training.
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