Gorky Park

It has been a long time since I last viewed this film, but it was a welcome revisit, and a chance to see a great performance by William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman, A History of Violence, The Proposition). After about a dozen of his films, I never tire of watching him act.

The cast also included Lee Marvin in a very good performance, and the ever-lovable Brian Dennehy. This was also the American debut of Joanna Pacula, who got a Golden Globe nomination for her outstanding performance. And, we also got to see her golden globes in a skintastic moment, right before she gets Hurt! This was her finest film in a career spanning 30 years.

Do not miss this fine police procedural with a surprise ending. The motive is brilliant.

A very unique, fast moving and entertaining story about political and criminal intrigue in Cold War (real cold, just watch the movie!) Russia. The grisly murder of three young people sends our protagonist, Inspector Arkady Renko (W. Hurt), on a complex, intertwining mission to find out who and/or what was behind this dastardly crime. As the crime facts unfold, potential suspects begin to surface in the mind of the inspector, suspects that may include American collusion with KGB officials. Maybe not entirely novel on the surface, but the sequences of events and the characterizations set forth are anything but pedestrian.

Perhaps the sequences of the facial reconstruction of the 3 victims "de-skinned" facial bones and the subsequent deductions provide the impetus for an unusual plot setting. The involvement of the American cop (B. Dennehy), the Siberian beauty and romantic interest (J. Pacula) who wants out of her homeland, the rich American (L. Marvin), the inspector's police buddies, to name a few, provide more than mere tangential plot fodder: the sum of their actions coalesces in the inspector's mind and takes him closer yet to what could be a very inconvenient truth. All this is done cinematically with good pace and little wasted motion.

It is noteworthy that most of the so-called Russians are British Isles actors who maintain their native brogue while donning the usual Kossack-like apparel! Yet their histrionic adeptness suffers not and their characterizations come off well. After all, we've seen this type of casting done before, but I don't think we could pull this off in modern Russia. Instead of filming in Finland with British actors, we would be filming in Moscow or St. Pete with Russian actors.

Any additional reviewing will get me into the "spoiler" category, so I'll just sign off by saying see the movie. To me, it is William Hurt's best!

Gorky Park is one of my favorite political thriller and a film I watch regularly. I have never understood why it is not better known and better rated.

As is often with Cold War Spy films, the system is corrupt on both sides, and it's the every day people who pay the price of the greed and dishonesty of those playing the games behind the scene. The only way to survive is to be invisible and never get mixed up in a case that has political ties. William Hurt plays Arkady Renko, a Moscow police man who gets one of those cases. Three bodies are found in Gorky Park. Faces and fingertips have been removed and KGB seams to know something about this but they do not want the case. KGB does not like Arkady Renko very much since he has tried to prove their guilt once before and he is sure that they are now out for a revenge. The case is somehow connected to Jack Osborne, an American business man played by Lee Marvin.

The film does not shy away from criticizing both sides. Not only do the politics come off as hypocritical, the whole world of espionage is shown as an inhuman and cruel game of greedy and power hungry opportunists.

Some have criticized the film for not capturing the book well enough. It is rather unfair to expect a 2 hour long film to include everything from a 600 page book. A feature film of such a long book is always going to be a shortened version. I think Dennis Potter (yes the one and only) does a great job of capturing the moral bankruptcy of both systems, communism and capitalism. How they are in fact the same. Just a way to keep the little man busy and blind so those in power can get rich by corrupting the system.

Not perfect but not far from it.

It's winter and three corpses are found in Moscow's Gorky Park. They've had their faces and finger tips carved off. Arkady Renko, an honest, slightly obsessive Russian cop, is assigned to the case. He sets out to identify the bodies by reconstructing their faces, and as he gets closer he finds obstructions in his path. He finds a girl (Joanna Pacula) who was friends of the trio, a wealthy and ruthless American (Lee Marvin), an American cop (Brian Dennehy) out for blood, and more than he probably wants to know about sable coats and the animals they're made from. It becomes clear that corrupt higher-ups are involved in something with greater stakes than solving a triple murder. Hurt and Marvin do great jobs and are well matched.

This is a tight, very well constructed police procedural that is a little exotic, with the cops and functionaries being Russians. It's also a bit gloomy with a bitter sweet ending, but it still works as a very watchable film. A lot of the outdoor shots were filmed in Helsinki, and the movie takes place in the winter. The atmosphere looks cold and oppressive. The contrast is striking with the scenes set in a pre-revolutionary bath and an expensive restaurant, both reserved for the use of privileged Soviet officials.

The book, by Martin Cruz Smith, is even better. Apted also directed Enigma, and I like both movies a lot.

This is a fairly common story, that of an honest man fighting alone against a corrupt system. The setting is unusual, and the plot has some entertaining twists.

William Hurt plays Senior Investigator Renko, of the Moscow Militia (i.e. police). He is assigned to a high-profile murder case, and finds himself alternately prodded on, hindered or even threatened by his own superiors, by the KGB and by his obvious suspect. All these people are acting so self-confidently compared to Renko's plodding, that the sense of loneliness, or even of paranoia is very apparent.

Much of the action is contrived and unconvincing, both in its development and denouement, although the film does build to a good climax. On the other hand, all the characterisations of ordinary russians, who must have been strange creatures to film directors and audiences alike at the time, is very good.

The directors discarded one of the original novel's best tricks, that of sending Renko to New York (to recover valuable state property), and confronting him with the law enforcement system which gave rise to "Kojak" and the "Hill Street Blues".

Overall this is quite a good film, and fairly close to the novel. There are some sequels written which deserve to appear on the screen.