Stalin (1992)

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

What a pity that this TV movie wasn't Instead a Hollywood production, then perhaps It would have gotten the awards It so richly deserves. Anyone with knowledge of Stalin and his cohorts will appreciate how well all the main characters are portrayed by the mainly British cast but with American Duvall at his very best. I always appreciate historical accuracy and while some major events are missed and (perhaps through poor editing) not every situation and relationship between characters Is properly explained, this Is nevertheless a marvelous historical film almost on the scale of epic - It deserved general release and an extra half-hour would have gone a long way In tidying up the gaps In the story. Duvall does a great Job as Stalin - the mannerisms, his icy coldness behind the smile - okay so his Russian accent Is a bit "off" In places but to criticize his performance Just for that would be grossly unfair. TV movies are by nature generally "mild", being as they are aimed generally for family viewing, but a lack of bad language and sex scenes, and Indeed only a little blood (and no gore) Is a breath of fresh air - besides, none of that stuff Is needed here; we don't have to see the terror, we can feel It, we see It In the faces, hear It In the voices and Insinuations - It grows and pervades the whole film. This Is the best TV Movie I have ever seen and Is definitely In my top 100 films.

"This Stalin was not a very nice dude." Henry remarked. He was having a bud, because he always had Budweiser in his fridge, which was a huge red contraption from the firm Northstar that was a remake of those older refrigerators from the fifties. Kristl might have also had a bud, but then she felt that the west was already over Americanized, so instead she drunk triple X. "Why on earth would you drink an Australian beer as a German?" Henry had remarked, when Kristl ordered the six pack via the internet. "Austrian." Kristl corrected. "Eh.. Triple X is Australian. Oh wait. Sorry. You meant you are Austrian." he grinned, "Don't they have Ger.. eh. Austrian beers?" "Yes, but I like Triple X." Kristl had said."No, he wasn't even though the movie is more focused on his private life than I would have expected. It seems to sort of make him look more favorable than I imagine him to be, but even then he remains a scary individual. The way he can be very jolly with you and then suddenly have you ordered to death. Like that moment when one of his old friends is about to be arrested by secret police and Stalin 'happens' to call at that very moment and orders them to leave.The sadist laughs at it. It just pictures him as madman." "Yeah. I think everyone he knew ended up dead eventually. And when he tosses his burning cigar down his wives shirt: what a nasty thing to do. " "There a lot of things that they had to skip it seems. Like there is a part missing at the beginning of World War II where the Sovjet-Union invade Finland, had a kind of shadow war with the Japanese and signed a pact with Hitler that gave him control over the Baltic nations and the eastern part of Poland. Also skipped is the part where a thousands of polish officers were massacred on his order. The list could be extended. Like the way the west tried to dispose of the communist regime at the end of the first world war. Like in the twenties there was a kind of alliance with Germany. Or the Ukrainian uprising at the end of the Second World War. All things that must have influenced this man and his decisions. " "Yeah." "The pity with this movie is that you somehow does not get to grips with the person of Stalin.. Even though Stalin is the subject of the movie, it feels like you are watching him from the outside, but never get in his inside.Never find his motivation or his side of the story. In that I find the move somewhat sterile. You never get to know what moved this man and what possessed him. Why he did those things?" "I think that might be because of the makeup. It looks like Duvalls is wearing a mask. His facial expression is almost non-existent." "I like Robert Duvall, he is a good actor, but they hamstrung him with that mask and thus the movie suffers. You are watching a statue.Still even then Duvall is marvelous because he tries to invoke emotions with that part of his face that is not cloaked with wax." "Yeah, I am left with the feeling that Stalin was a homicidal nut-case surrounded by nut-cases, most of whom were as Homicidal as he was.." Henry said. "And it leaves me with questions. Like how can a nut-case rule a big country like that for decades on end. It seems to beyond belief. Too simple an explanation to assume he is just a nut-case." "Also the movie suffers a bit because his wife kills herself halfway. Basically the story is told by following her and then she dies and that leaves the story suddenly without a focus and it never gets a focus again even though the story is told by his daughter.." Kristl nodded. "So leaves you a bit unfulfilled?" "Yes." "That is why we have beer." Henry grinned and he opened another bud. "Oh, to get fulfilled?" Kristl said. "Yes and to forget we are not." Henry burped. "And forget about him." "That too."

The first person in line for Stalin's purges should have been the makeup designer. Duvall looks almost as unnatural as Hugo Weaving in his mask in V for Vendetta. Considering that he speaks and acts as if he is in one of his Godfather movies, the overall effect is extremely weird and rather one-dimensional.Perhaps Stalin was indeed simply a very nasty paranoid despot who murdered everyone in sight, but if so this film is much too long, since we get the message very early on.It might have helped if we could have had more of the history involved - for example how exactly Stalin managed to take power after Lenin's death and his tactics in playing off the right against the left (and vice versa). The show trials could also have been exploited more, as could the wide extent of the purges - and also the minor matter of the Second World War, which is largely glossed over.As it is, just seeing Stalin liquidate the rest of the film's cast one by one is horrifying but rather monotonous.

Ivan Passer made a very good job directing this "Docudrama", and everybody actress and actors give us a masterpiece. Those that do not agree shall remember that each one choose the role they want to play... They have the freedom to reject it also, so I must say "Thank you" to all the crew, you were really great. Great casting indeed. There is only one thing that is regrettable, I would like this "mini" much longer, I shall say 9 or 12 hours, maybe more. That will give much more precision in all sense in many many details in the story. And making a review of the sound, light, locations, make up, wardrobe etc. They were very good. I had a very good time seeing this movie. Duval performance is really extraordinary and unforgettable as Stalin, and Julia Ormond (Nadya), M. Schell(Lenin),J. Carter(Sergo), M.Ewan(Khrushchev),C. Jeavons (Yagoda) were most excellent.10/10