Showdown at the Russian Corral : Movies: ‘Jonathan of the Bears’ is the first real Western-made cowboy movie shot in Russia. Why shoot a film there? ‘Everything is four and more times cheaper.’

You’ve heard of the spaghetti Western, the cowboy movies shot in Italy and Spain in the 1960s and 1970s. Well, here’s a new twist on that old genre. Call it the borscht Western.

Head southwest out of Moscow for an hour and drive brazenly through the gates of a Russian army base, past the barbed wire and manned watchtowers and there’s an amazing sight: a ramshackle American town of the 1890s, complete with saloon and church.

Here, in the rich Russian mud, with the occasional rumble of military equipment nearby, a team of veteran Italian movie-makers are at work shooting the first real Western-made cowboy movie filmed in Russia.

Crack Russian stuntmen trained in the Cossack tradition do the horse tricks, including a few maneuvers banned in the United States because they are considered too rough on horses. Russian dancing girls stock the rowdy saloon scenes; genuine Russian bears play key roles.

“It could be Montana,” said Franco Nero, producer and star of “Jonathan of the Bears,” as he looked around him at the silvery Russian birches and grassy fields. “It doesn’t matter where you shoot a film as long as the film is good.”

But why shoot a Western in Moscow of all places? “It’s quite cheap,” director Enzo Castellari said, “especially the wood, and the (Russians’) salaries are very, very low--unfortunately for them.”

The film is working on a budget of $8 million, compared to a probable price tag of $20 million if it were shot in the United States.

At the same time, Castellari said, the Russian film industry can provide high professionalism in everything from photography to the woodworkers who built the set.

Russia’s first real Western fits into a growing trend among filmmakers to shoot movies here--whether or not a picture has anything to do with Russia. Nero shot a movie set in ancient Rome here last year; director Menahem Golan has been using Moscow as the backdrop for gangster movies.

“Western producers know that in Moscow, everything is four and more times cheaper,” said Yevgeny Zharikov, president of the Screen Actors Guild of Russia. “In the United States, you pay $60 a day for an extra. Here, you pay that in a month to a top professional worker.”

Little did the Mongol hordes who invaded Russia starting in the 13th Century know that they were doing an enormous favor for future movie producers. Their descendants, found both in Russia and in other former Soviet republics, serve beautifully as Indian extras, Castellari and Nero said.

Actor John Saxon, who plays a villain in “Jonathan of the Bears,” said that Russian extras also can provide an authentic European look that accurately reflects what America’s immigrant stock would have looked like in the Old West.

“When we have our saloon hall girls,” he said, “if we had done it in L.A., the girls would all look like Barbie dolls. Here, some of the girls came in and they had legs like that . . . “ he said as he drew a hefty hock in the air with his hands. “And they had a face that would have come out of Europe in the 1870s or 1880s.”

Russia’s low salaries, Castellari said, mean that he can also afford to hire a full orchestra for the score, so that “at last I will have real music and not a synthesizer.”

Of course, there are disadvantages--also of the special Russian sort.

On a recent shooting day, military vehicles had left noticeable tire tracks on the supposedly 19th-Century town’s unpaved street; filming had to be delayed until they were covered up. Even though movie sets always seem to consist of a whole lot of waiting around, this one seemed even slower than usual.

“Two hours ago, I said to take out the tractor tracks!” fumed Castellari, speculating that “70 years of that strange life” left Russians uniquely lackadaisical. Language problems and typical Russian snags in supplies do not help, either.

Nero said that after almost 11 weeks of shooting, he was hoping to be able to wrap up “Jonathan of the Bears” in a total of 14 weeks--nearly double a typical shoot.

“The first thing I’ve learned about working here is nothing is easy,” Saxon said. “Once you get that straight, it’s not so bad.”

The American village, Nero said, will remain in place when the movie is done and could be rented out to future filmmakers for future borscht Westerns. Russian directors, too, who have made a few modest attempts at American-style Westerns in the past, could find the set useful.

“Jonathan” is the story of an orphaned white boy--the child is played by a Russian--who comes to be raised briefly by bears, then is taken in by American Indians. The adult Jonathan is played by Nero and fights to defend his people and land threatened by the white man’s greed.

Nero was a popular hero of the spaghetti Westerns in which Clint Eastwood also got his start. He is perhaps best known for his role as Sir Lancelot in the 1967 movie version of “Camelot” and his relationship with co-star Vanessa Redgrave. He said he had wanted to make another Western for years, but only the recent success of “Dances With Wolves,” “Unforgiven” and “The Last of the Mohicans” created a clear enough trend to make financing possible.