Archangel (2005) (TV)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Jon Jones

Writers:

Robert Harris (novel)
Dick Clement (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

5 January 2006 (Estonia)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A British college professor working in Russia investigates certain mysteries surrounding the life and death of Joseph Stalin.

Plot Keywords:

Russia | Murder | College Professor | Female To Male Foot In Crotch | One Word Title

Cast

Daniel Craig	...	Prof. Fluke Kelso
Yekaterina Rednikova	...	Zinaida Rapava
Gabriel Macht	...	R.J. O'Brian
Lev Prygunov	...	Vladimir Mamantov
Alexey Diakov	...	Suvorin
Harry Ditson	...	Frank Adelman
Tanya Moodie	...	Velma
Avtandil Makharadze	...	Josef Stalin
Anna Gerasimova	...	Anna
Claudia Harrison	...	Louise
Kaspars Zvigulis	...	Young Papu Rapava
Valery Chernyak	...	Old Papu Rapava
Aurelija Anuzhite	...	Olga
Ziedonis Lochmelis	...	Viktor
Jakov Rafalson	...	Moscow Official (as Yakov Rafalson)

Runtime:

Japan:133 min | 124 min (2 parts)

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | UK:12

Filming Locations:

Moscow, Russia

Company:

BBC Drama Group

Trivia:

Icon Productions originally held the film rights to the novel, with intentions to develop it as a Mel Gibson vehicle for the big screen.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Kelso states that Arkhangelsk was founded by Peter the Great, but Arkhangelsk was founded no later than 1584, almost a century before Peter was even born.

Quotes:

Fluke Kelso: You should do that more often.
Zinaida: What?
Fluke Kelso: Laugh.

Disappointing Thriller

With the exception of the new series of DOCTOR WHO , this has got to be the most publicised BBC serial of the year , and with good reason I guess since Robert Harris is a popular and acclaimed novelist whose books make very informative reading

!!!! SPOILERS !!!!

However watching ARCHANGEL it becomes very obvious that his novels work as informative and very well researched novels only suited to the printed page to make them anyway successful . The FATHERLAND TVM set in a Nazi dominated world of the 1960s is hated by fans of the novel , while ENIGMA doesn't really lend itself to the way the movie was marketed and it's the same with this BBC miniseries

Is the Russian tundra a good location for a thriller ? There's a limit to how much the human eye can take before it starts suffering from snow blindness , in fact the cold snowy landscape depressed this viewer more than anything else . Oh and because of the plot we treated to lots of simplified ex positional dialogue for the benefit of a mass audience who don't know the first thing about Uncle Joe Stalin . Exposition in a book is one thing because you can dedicate many pages of characters thought process , but watching it on a television screen means the characters and dialogue come off as unnatural

But ironically it's Harris's plot where everything comes apart - Stalin had a son who no one knows about and is trying to force the new Russia into communist dictatorship again. Sorry I don't buy that due to the gaps in logic . Communism wasn't founded under Stalin nor did it end with the death of Stalin so why the big deal about new communism on the march ? And why would killing Stalin Jnr signal the end of a potential communist era ?

The flaws with this political thriller are the same as the ones of Ira Levin's novel about Hitler being cloned . They are somewhat ridiculous plots but are so well written that the reader won't notice these flaws . Watching it played out on screen is a different matter