The Russian title of this film (which is faithfully given in transcription in the IMDb entry as Semero Smelykh) is Семеро Смелых-- which actually comes out "Seven Brave People" (or Seven Brave Ones, or perhaps The Seven Who Were Brave, if you want to get arty). In any case, there's no mention of men as such in it, so all of North Wales can relax on that score.
To call the film "propaganda" is not so much inaccurate as marveling at the obvious: no Soviet film of the period (or indeed any period) could be made *and* released for public consumption without passing several stages of official review, much of which -- and especially under high Stalinism -- was political in nature. Thus nothing that was not perceived as serving certain state ends (or the ends of certain powerful individuals/agencies within the state) could show up on Soviet screens. And much that *did* show up, naturally, contained a propaganda quotient far beyond the level of BEARABLE to a non-Soviet audience.
This film was Sergei Gerasimov's first as director-- and certainly not his best. Take a look, by way of contrast, at his version of Sholokhov's "Tikhii Don" ("and Quiet Flows the Don", 1958) or his last film, "Tolstoy (1984), in which he cast himself as the eponymous writer.
"Seven Brave, er, Individuals" is, in any case, endowed with good location segments and occasionally reaches an admirable level of tautness in the characters' problem-solving. So it can boast a watchability factor, if you will, rather higher than many of its contemporaries-- and evidently achieved a re-watchability factor to match, for that matter, as its creditable IMDb viewer rating attests.
To call the film "propaganda" is not so much inaccurate as marveling at the obvious: no Soviet film of the period (or indeed any period) could be made *and* released for public consumption without passing several stages of official review, much of which -- and especially under high Stalinism -- was political in nature. Thus nothing that was not perceived as serving certain state ends (or the ends of certain powerful individuals/agencies within the state) could show up on Soviet screens. And much that *did* show up, naturally, contained a propaganda quotient far beyond the level of BEARABLE to a non-Soviet audience.
This film was Sergei Gerasimov's first as director-- and certainly not his best. Take a look, by way of contrast, at his version of Sholokhov's "Tikhii Don" ("and Quiet Flows the Don", 1958) or his last film, "Tolstoy (1984), in which he cast himself as the eponymous writer.
"Seven Brave, er, Individuals" is, in any case, endowed with good location segments and occasionally reaches an admirable level of tautness in the characters' problem-solving. So it can boast a watchability factor, if you will, rather higher than many of its contemporaries-- and evidently achieved a re-watchability factor to match, for that matter, as its creditable IMDb viewer rating attests.