Staline

To appreciate this film you might read any one of the best accounts of Stalin's dictatorship by Roy Medvedev, Dmitri Volkogonov, Edvard Radzinsky, Simon Sebag Montefiore, or Donald Rayfield. If you know these books you'll find little reason to argue with how this film portrays 'The Boss'. Other reviewers on this site have noted how well Robert Duvall captures Stalin's surly, crude, cunning, sadistic, paranoid personality. They're right. He's marvellous in the role. One reviewer has questioned whether Voroshilov would have dared to shout at Stalin, as he does in this film, at the start of the war. This is a fair point as Stalin picked his men carefully for their inability to stand up to him or take initiative. However, Donald Rayfield cites an example of the normally slavish Voroshilov doing something very like what is portrayed in the film, shouting at Stalin as war with the Nazis was looming for murdering most of the Red Army high command and so crippling the defences of the USSR. He was one of the few men to do anything of the kind and survive Stalin

The film is shot at the scenes of the crimes - the Kremlin at Stalin's Kuntsevo dacha - and is sumptuous watching as a result. Watch out for Satlin's huge, waddling shadow on the ceiling as he climbs a great staircase, an incubus about to settle on the Soviet People. It might be a standard trick but it doesn't look contrived.

Rather less convincing are the portrayals of Stalin's wife and some of his associates. This is the fault of the script or the direction or both, not the actors. For example, Stalin's second wife Nadya was not quite the principled heroine seen here who apparently took her own life because she saw no other escape from the evil that her husband was bringing to the country. The real Nadya brought some of her own problems to her marriage and these contributed to her death. Bukharin, wretched in his final weeks, may have been the best of them but that was saying little. He was not quite the noble, tragic 'swan' portrayed. He was prone to hysterics - about his own problems primarily - the suffering millions could suffer as long as he was approved of. During his final imprisonment, Bukharin wrote to Stalin offering to do anything, put his name to anything, if only Stalin would be his 'friend' again. Stalin takes all the heat and deserves plenty but many of the rest seem like innocents, fooled by him, finding out too late that they were caught up in his evil and corrupted or destroyed by it. But Stalin, like Hitler and any other dictator, was only possible because those around him saw advantage for themselves in supporting him. If there's a problem with this film it's that it lets some of Stalin's minions off the hook. It settles for extremes - Stalin and his chiefs of secret police on the one hand, and the good or loyal but naive on the other. But the only innocents were the people of the former Soviet Union, those far from power whose lives were destroyed according to the requirements of a command economy - so many deaths and so many slaves were required from every walk of life, like so many tons of iron, to meet quotas. (They are acknowledged in the film's dedication). Those around Stalin, however, were all up to their elbows in blood just as he was, obsessed with their own positions, Bukharin, Zinoviev, and Kamanev included. This is perhaps something to bear in mind in watching a generally excellent and historically accurate film. If you're interested in the psychology of Stalin and his henchmen try Jack Gold's 'Red Monarch' (1983) with Colin Blakely as Stalin. The history comes second to the general impression in that film but it's worth the sacrifice. Duvall as Stalin is marvellous in a deadly serious way, but Blakely is bloody marvellous in a deadly funny way. Red Monarch also spares the audience English peppered with 'Da' to remind you that these people are really speaking Russian, and faked Eastern-European accents.

This is one of the better historical biopics. Robert Duvall manages to do a credible job in portraying the title character - Stalin. Not surprisingly, Duvall is in just about very scene, and he succeeds in doing credit to the role. He approximates Stalin, which is the most any actor could possibly do. The movie works because instead of sensationalizing Stalin's excesses, which are addressed in the movie, it instead deals with his personal behavior, especially his relationships, both personnel and professional, with those closest to him. The movie shows that Stalin was not incapable of love nor of empathy; it also shows that he revered Lenin and was committed to ensuring that Lenin's work continue. The movie also shows what was Stalin's fundamental character flaw - his inability to trust, the cause of which remains unknown. This flaw led to abuses of power that are perhaps unequaled in history. One of the more interesting features of Stalin was his tendency to rationalize his most outrageous and murderous decisions and repress his own feelings, the combination of which made him come off as cold and uncaring. For Stalin did care - about the preserving and protecting the revolution which he identified with himself. Stalin simply could nor separate himself personally from his work, and this distorted his relationships, causing him to do things that were, to say the least, hurtful. Stalin had a tendency to lash out at those closest to him, which made working with him challenging. The movie shows that one had to be careful as to how they acted and what they said around Stalin, because Stalin was looking for any excuse to prove you an enemy of the revolution, which in turn meant being his enemy. If one is interested in learning something about Joseph Stalin the person, then watch this movie.

It's certainly not a brief, inaccurate retelling, but it's neither a history captured. Hollywood with the help of Czechoslovakian immigrate Ivan Passer and famous movie stars offers quite a simplified vision of a terrible man Stalin and his crimes. The history of Russian revolution and USSR from 1917 till 1953 appears as a screen version of quite honest but so much oversimplified cartoon-like cliches and sketches. For every Russian spectator all the characters (beginning with Stalin) are unbelievable in every way from make-up to behavior. Seems like all of them escaped from an amateurish waxwork museum. Even the magnificent Russian actors Feklistov, Tabakov and Larionov had skillfully degraded and performed very brief roles which is a great shame considering their high level. Quite a Hollywood is an American attempt to warmer a Monster type with a lyrical story line of Stalin's relationship with his daughter Svetlana who is telling the story.

Probably one of the TV movies I had never heard about until I watched it 3 years ago in history class. This movie details the life of Joseph Stalin, the notorious Communist leader, brought to life by a stunning Robert Duvall who brings out his greatest performance ever.

Narrated by Stalin's daughter Svetlana, this begins with Stalin joining Lenin and the Bolsheviks in their fight against the government, eventually setting up their own government themselves. Most of his biography is well known to us, however this movie brings out the character of Stalin as a psycho villain who did not trust a single person, not even his associates and took extreme measures to exterminate them all. His ego and paranoia alienated him from his friends and his family, even to the point where his wife (Julia Ormond) commits suicide and young Svetlana hating him. But in the end, he does not change and this leads to his downfall and death.

Although the film does suffer in pacing, it is the performance of Robert Duvall that makes it worth watching. In my opinion, Duvall is simply the best actor out of the Godfather series, better than Brando, Pacino, De Niro or Caan. His performances are real and endearing as he simply becomes Stalin by portraying the ruthlessness and paranoia of the mad Communist dictator; a man who could not be solved by his friends or family, and who could not be controlled by anyone even himself. The supporting cast headed by Julia Ormond as Stalin's wife, Maximillian Schell as Lenin and Roshan Seth as Berin do well, but it is Duvall's show all the way. This TV movie is what is not shown in history textbooks. It is engaging and real, but not a masterpiece. History buffs will enjoy watching this, trying to put the pieces together about the madman known as Joseph Stalin.

8 out of 10.

I freakin love this movie. I don't even really know why. Probably a combination of factors. First of all, this was the first movie I ever saw Robert Duvall in, and he does an exceptional job as he has done in every role he has ever had. Also, it gave me a decent historical picture of Stalin which led to years of fascination with the man. It was also one of HBO's first in a long string of award winning historical fiction TV movies, and still my personal favorite. If you like Robert Duvall and great dialogue, I highly recommend it.