This film is worshipped by anyone from the Soviet era and its vast orbit, and I couldn't catch up with the subtitles with my Lithuanian partner giving excited blow-by-blow commentary. To be honest I chime to a high degree with the minority of IMDb reviewers who were a little underwhelmed, unconvinced of its much lauded comedic power. It seemed sort of mildly amusing mostly slapstick farce to me, and far from original in concept. The protagonist is played by a celebrated circus clown apparently. There clearly is a lot of poetic elements the subtitles didn't fully expound on - in the songs especially, and clearly without a degree in Russian studies I can't be expected to appreciate the Soviet cultural tropes and ethic references that the verbal humour draws on... My feeling is it seemed quite naive for a late 1960s product, certainly from a western perspective, but maybe like everything in those days, unlike us degenerates, over there people were just happier with less, content with winks and pratfalls... I imagine they were bound to snigger at the sideward pokes at the authorities that abound. I wouldn't call the movie especially artful or intelligent, just well-made entertainment. Now I never understood half of the dialogue in Tarkovsy's Solaris, but its concept and cinematography mark that out as a true masterpiece. Here, the fast pace of The Diamond Arm, the economic length and manic surreal diversions do well for it, but it's less Andrei Rubkev and more Monty Python really. So it's alright and certainly an informative and engaging watch. It seems to be is a true communist movie in the sense of it being popcorn for the masses - crowd-pleasing. There are plenty of seasoned & determined comedic actors, it's full of music, even dance, lots of drunken revelry, it's honest to goodness escapism. No more than that.
Review of The Diamond Arm
