Gulag (1985)

Mickey Almon is a sports star turned reporter covering the athletics in Moscow. Framed by the KGB and forced to confess that he was spying for America, he is sentenced to detention in a ... See full summary »

Director:

Roger Young

Writers:

Yehousha Ben-Porat (story), Dan Gordon (screenplay)

Stars:

David Keith, Malcolm McDowell, Warren Clarke

6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Keith	...	Mickey Almon
Malcolm McDowell	...	The Englishman
Warren Clarke	...	Hooker
John McEnery	...	Diczek
Nancy Paul	...	Susan Almon
Brian Pettifer	...	Vlasov
George Pravda	...	Bukovsky
Shane Rimmer	...	Jay
Bruce Boa	...	McHenry
Eugene Lipinski	...	Yuri
Ray Jewers	...	T.V. Interviewer
Bogdan Kominowski	...	Stolypin Guard
Barrie Houghton	...	Wisinski
Alexei Jawdokimov	...	Vikstrom
Ivan Lee	...	Chinaman

Storyline

Mickey Almon is a sports star turned reporter covering the athletics in Moscow. Framed by the KGB and forced to confess that he was spying for America, he is sentenced to detention in a Gulag, a barbaric prison camp in the wilds of Siberia. Unable to prove his innocence, Mickey must either put up with the inhuman conditions or engineer an escape.

---

Plot Keywords:

prison | escape | nudity | male rear nudity | male nudity | 

---

Taglines:

He's innocent . . . he's isolated . . . condemned as a spy to the GULAG.

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 January 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gulag - Desejo de Liberdade

Filming Locations:

Finse, Norway

Company Credits

Production Co:

HBO Premiere Films,Home Box Office (HBO),Lorimar Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

130 min 119 min (video) 107 min (theatrical) 114 min (VHS)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Rankcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of seven espionage related filmed productions featuring actor David Suchet which were made and released around the mid 1980s. The titles include Gulag (1985), Trenchcoat (1983), Red Monarch (1983), A Song for Europe (1985), The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), John le Carré's The Little Drummer Girl (1984), and an episode of Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983) [See: Reilly: Ace of Spies: Prelude to War (1983)].

---

Quotes

Diczek: [Discussing the impossibility of escape with Mickey] For a break to succeed, you'd have to *start* it a thousand kilometers away from here. And then you'd have to cross ice in winter, or tundra and swamps in the summer. Not to mention the problem of food.
The Englishman: Well, that's no problem. Just take along a sandwich. You know what a sandwich is, don't you, old boy?
Diczek: Let's just play cards...
The Englishman: [to Diczek] No, wait a minute, wait a minute! Look, we got a new boy here, and it's time he knew the facts.
[to Mickey]
The Englishman:

---

Alternate Versions

Theatrical feature versions of this American tele-movie released in cinemas in non-US foreign territories have a running time which is ten minutes shorter according to the book "Movies Made for Television" (1987).

User Reviews

Let's Emulate Gulag

I have been trying to emulate for some time Alexander Solzhenitsyn and his documentary "Gulag Archipelago". But firstly let me say few words about "Gulag" (1985), based on the reviews from IMDb. The film was obviously shot in Norway and I as a referent from former Socialist Eastern Europe had grasp of it only recently. This movie was even more censored than "Caligula" with the same actor (British star Malcolm McDowell) which was pure pornography. Unlike Erotic Cinema and being it's little sister, Underground Cinema and Political Art are fake. Not many Directors and Actors dare reveal the whole truth and only the truth.

This movie is an attempt to be as much convincing as "Midnight Express" (1978) - which is about an Englishman trying to escape from Turkish Prison System. While America and it's West Europe partners have been favoring Turkey's membership in NATO for very long time, it is nowadays that the system backfire. See, there is a new Soviet Union that now encompass Russia, Turkey and their satellites. Consider what would happen if those New Soviets (never mind whether Communist or Islamist) get hold of modern warfare technology blueprints. Enough is enough.

Secondly, about that man Solzhenitsyn and his secret dossier with both KGB and FBI. Obviously, he was another loud mouth and both double and triple agent. Consider his troubled life both in the Soviet Union and as exile in Vermont, USA. He looks like a semi-deranged hermit and never appears in public unless specifically prearranged. His "questions-and-answers" interviews are structured beforehand and even after several corrected proofs are difficult to read. Solzhenitsyn never learned proper English and always used translators. Thus, a book titled "Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956" appeared for the Western public in the period 1973-1978. Personally, I don't know how many people both from Russia and abroad contributed for this book. The number of upliftings is considerable and catharsis is enormous. But tribute goes to Alexander Solzhenitsyn!

Get more insights for modern barbed wire and forced labor from the bestsellers of Hedrick Smith - "Russians" (1976) and "New Russians" (1991). They are indispensable. Enjoy it!