Kon Belyy

It's 1993, Russia - the so-called The 90's are in full bloom, and the cinema business is in ruins, the movies made at this period are either vapid pieces of blood, blackness and wild stupid erotica, or some mind-numbing pseudo-intellectual languid drags. Another typical feature of that time was a clear anti-Soviet sentiment, which is not bad or good, well, it just was there. And yes, that was the time when everything ante-Revolution, ante-Lenin was considered good, fine and almost perfect. The Pale Horse ( a symbol of a Horse and Rider of Apocalypse) is a very very typical piece of such propaganda. Made in sickly sepia tomes, it depicts the story of Civil War and later, WWII in the viewpoint of those pro-White Guard, pro-Czarist naive supporters. Thus, all monarchical is shown there as sweet, ideal, and good. While the Bolsheviks are depicted as drunken, dirty, muddy, wild, brutal, hungry and horrid monsters. Well, yeah, some Whites are also shown as violent wanton killers, but... the tonality taken here is painfully wrong, the actors play horribly bad, and the slow tempo of the serial is killing, and numbing the brain. Shallow symbolism and very naive kiddish montage ideas make laugh, not suffer. Suffer, too, since the serial is so poor. One can watch it only as a example of 90's worst movies. To sit through 555 minutes of 10 episodes is far too much and far too unbearable. Rating - 0 (zero), but here 1 is for worst

This movie is like a backfire to all those soviet movies about war, used in propaganda ways, where the bolsheviks were served as heroes, but this movie tells all the truth about bolsheviks nad white guards and unbelievably sad destiny of Russia and its people, in the hands of evil. This movie shows people who was fighting against whom, not in propaganda ways, but to show Russian people,who were they warshiping all these years. For non-Russian audience this movie will also be a good lesson in history, cos when I watched Dr.Zhivago I were feeling, as I was watching another soviet propogandic movie.

The cast is pretty good,but editing in not. Couse being the ONLY true story movie about civil war, I give 9/10

This unique dramatic miniseries about the tragic events of the 1917 communist revolution and its aftermath was made in 1993, two years after the Soviet regime had crumbled along with state censorship. It is the first Russian made miniseries about the Russian civil war to have depicted the Bolshevik revolution in a candid, brutally honest light. In this regard it was only paralleled 15 years later with the release of the "Admiral" film and miniseries.

Kon' Beliy (White Horse, named after one of the horsemen in the Apocalypse) follows several characters: the last Tsar and his family, an officer who had once served the last Tsar, two sisters torn between the communist Reds and the anti-communist Whites, the leader of the Russian Siberian anti-communist movement Admiral Kolchak, and a one time White counterintelligence officer who manages to survive in Russia through World War II.

Throughout the film, we see numerous themes: God and country versus revolution, loyalty versus treason, revenge and brutality versus mercy and humanity, love versus separation, and monarchy versus democracy, all on the backdrop of highly tumultuous, historically significant times.

Performances are excellent overall, featuring a number of emerging as well as veteran actors of the Russian screen. The occasional dream sequences can come off as somewhat indulgent, but do not seriously distract from the core of the story. The last 3 episodes which occur in the 1940's require some focus and patience to piece together, but is well worth the payoff.

While the film was shot on a relatively tight budget for a historical project of this scope as compared to "Admiral", it features excellent historical detail, costume, crowd scenes, and sets. Russians, Russophiles, history buffs, and cinema buffs who love a good foreign TV serial will not be disappointed.