10/10 Hands down the best miniseries I have ever seen. Clocking in at over 12 hours, this Soviet production demands commitment, but it is well worth it. Reputed to be the most popular Soviet series ever: Streets would be empty when it was broadcast and estimated 80,000,000 people would be watching. A surprising indication of its popularity: crime rates would drop because people wanted to see the show instead.
Follows the career of a Soviet spy who had infiltrated the Nazi regime at a high level in the waning days of World War II (partially based on a true story). In a way, not much happens, but this is what is so important: The series is intelligent and patient and follows the moods and tensions of a spy being in such a dangerous position fighting the Nazis from within their own hierarchy by pretending to be one of them. Much of the film is a slow and searching exploration of the battle of wits it took for the agent to maintain his position among the turmoils and suspicious of a rapidly decaying Nazi regime just as the war is about to end. The agent must show an outward loyalty to his Nazi superiors while all the time maintaining the secret spy agenda of overthrowing them, and there are many scenes that explore the psychological strength maintaining this position requires. The Germans are clearly villains, but they are not shown as caricatures.
There is so much intelligence in the way this is presented that it's remarkable. I cannot imagine many Americans even today who would have the patience to give up their easily touted slogans about patriotism to sit through a long and complex exposition like this series. Americans prefer "Hogan's Heroes" versions of WWII. Evidently it worked with a mass audience in the Soviet Union, however - perhaps a testament to a more patient and thinking population than one that is sated by soundbites and quick satisfactions.
The film includes a large amount of Soviet war-time newsreel footage to make the battle scenes and views of Berlin. Partly this footage was included by the censors to make it seem like the war was "not won just by a few spies," but it has the unintended effect of giving a very different view of the war than what we usually see through the American footage of the same period. The Soviet front was one of the greatest carnages in human history, and it is often forgotten that 20,000,000 Soviets died in the war. The very brutal footage gives a look at the devastation and disaster of WWII that is often obscured in more 'patriotic' American footage that focuses a lot on victories and chummy soldiers goofing around.
It is said that the main character of this film is so beloved by Russians that when they were looking for someone to overthrow Yeltsin, they wanted a man who resembled the character in this series because they knew the public would love anyone resembling that character. The person they found was Putin (himself an ex-German KGB agent), and a large part of Putin's popularity evidently derives from the resemblances he shares with the character in this film. The film was in fact produced under Andropov to improve the image of the KGB within the USSR.
It is enlightening to compare this series with the jingoistic and drum-thumping patriotic equivalents that the US was making at the same time. Whereas the US resorted to the crassest lowest-common-denominator propaganda about how the 'great generation' saved us from 'evil,' the Soviet series is far more complex and nuanced. In the end you get a sense that there were problems on many sides, and that the job of the secret agent is never easy, and never ending. What you are left with is a sense that a better world is not going to be 'won' simply by some fight but that it is an ongoing struggle that will repeat many times.
Follows the career of a Soviet spy who had infiltrated the Nazi regime at a high level in the waning days of World War II (partially based on a true story). In a way, not much happens, but this is what is so important: The series is intelligent and patient and follows the moods and tensions of a spy being in such a dangerous position fighting the Nazis from within their own hierarchy by pretending to be one of them. Much of the film is a slow and searching exploration of the battle of wits it took for the agent to maintain his position among the turmoils and suspicious of a rapidly decaying Nazi regime just as the war is about to end. The agent must show an outward loyalty to his Nazi superiors while all the time maintaining the secret spy agenda of overthrowing them, and there are many scenes that explore the psychological strength maintaining this position requires. The Germans are clearly villains, but they are not shown as caricatures.
There is so much intelligence in the way this is presented that it's remarkable. I cannot imagine many Americans even today who would have the patience to give up their easily touted slogans about patriotism to sit through a long and complex exposition like this series. Americans prefer "Hogan's Heroes" versions of WWII. Evidently it worked with a mass audience in the Soviet Union, however - perhaps a testament to a more patient and thinking population than one that is sated by soundbites and quick satisfactions.
The film includes a large amount of Soviet war-time newsreel footage to make the battle scenes and views of Berlin. Partly this footage was included by the censors to make it seem like the war was "not won just by a few spies," but it has the unintended effect of giving a very different view of the war than what we usually see through the American footage of the same period. The Soviet front was one of the greatest carnages in human history, and it is often forgotten that 20,000,000 Soviets died in the war. The very brutal footage gives a look at the devastation and disaster of WWII that is often obscured in more 'patriotic' American footage that focuses a lot on victories and chummy soldiers goofing around.
It is said that the main character of this film is so beloved by Russians that when they were looking for someone to overthrow Yeltsin, they wanted a man who resembled the character in this series because they knew the public would love anyone resembling that character. The person they found was Putin (himself an ex-German KGB agent), and a large part of Putin's popularity evidently derives from the resemblances he shares with the character in this film. The film was in fact produced under Andropov to improve the image of the KGB within the USSR.
It is enlightening to compare this series with the jingoistic and drum-thumping patriotic equivalents that the US was making at the same time. Whereas the US resorted to the crassest lowest-common-denominator propaganda about how the 'great generation' saved us from 'evil,' the Soviet series is far more complex and nuanced. In the end you get a sense that there were problems on many sides, and that the job of the secret agent is never easy, and never ending. What you are left with is a sense that a better world is not going to be 'won' simply by some fight but that it is an ongoing struggle that will repeat many times.