So I have not watched this yet (as I have never heard of it before today) but will do so soon. However based on the description of the movie, it's hard not to v

So I have not watched this yet (as I have never heard of it before today) but will do so soon. However based on the description of the movie, it's hard not to view it as a major source of inspiration for the character Tchitcherine from the Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow. Tchitcherine is part of the red army stationed in Central Asia, who saves and befriends an ethnic minority from Kazakhstan. Pynchon's scenes are both reminiscent of westerns and slapstick, through out the book but also in full force during the Tchitcherine sections. Considering GR's major themes are film and rockets (ones that destroy us and well as ones that take us to the stars) it's really hard to imagine that Pynchon himself had not watched this before publishing his novel 3 years after The White Son of the Desert's release. All that said I have found no mention of anyone putting these two things together.