Red King, White Knight (1989 TV Movie) User Reviews

Taut, enjoyable thriller

[mcpuffin · 7/10 · 3 September 1999]

Like many Cold War thrillers, "Red King, White Knight" has become somewhat dated by the flow of historical events. Still, it remains a taut and enjoyable thriller. The plot centers on an internal KGB plan to assassinate the Soviet General Secretary at the time of the begins of the real reform movement. The film, done for cable by HBO, is well acted throughout, especially by Mirren and von Sydow.

It is by no means a masterpiece - the pacing at times seems to get sluggish, particularly those scenes dealing with the CIA's formulation of the Presidential briefing. Many of the smaller characters are too cardboard and one dimensional. Finally, action fans may find the film a bit too psychological for their tastes. But therein also lies its strengths as each of the main characters wrestles with their own past, ideologies and beliefs while trying to determine how to react to the KGB plot.

All in all, a good view.

A solid thriller, with a good cast

[dennisg-6 · 7/10 · 16 February 2010]

This is a good CIA thriller.

The KGB is not happy with the way Glasnost was playing out in the Soviet Union. They hire an international assassin to kill the Soviet leader. Then, the KGB goes on and starts killing off all of its agents who know anything about the plot.

After most of his friends are dead, one KGB bodyguard reaches out to the CIA with the assassination news. Because of the delicate times, the CIA hires a long-retired agent (for "deniability" if he's caught), to collect the info, to make a deal with the KGB bodyguard, and then to turn the info in to the CIA. But, he has no idea that the stakes are so high (thanks to the CIA lying to him).

After he arrives in Russia, he quickly realizes that BIG things are happening. He takes refuge with Helen Mirren (an old girlfriend). Meanwhile the KGB re-activates Max von Sydow to track him down, and kill him.

I enjoy this movie. While it's a thriller, it isn't gory, and it isn't super-fast paced. The casting is great, including Barry Corbin.

political thriller / spy movie

[myriamlenys · 6/10 · 25 September 2020]

In "Red King, White Knight" the Americans catch wind of a KGB plot to assassinate the Russian leader. The plot is being fomented by forces within the secret service who think their political leadership, with its policy of reform, is betraying the Communist revolution (or what's left of it). This rather raises a double question : not only, could the Americans stop the would-be killer, but also, should they do so ?

The movie - note the date of its appearance ! - does a good job of evoking the creaking of an empire about to collapse. It also does a good job of evoking a dark, sad, sordid environment where both the stench of callousness and the stench of betrayal hang as stubbornly as the stench of burnt cabbage. Along the way, the viewer meets people such as a spy on the run who involves his former mistress in a hideously dangerous enterprise ; a teacher who bought her release from prison and her new life by ratting out her pupils ; and a counterintelligence expert who destroyed an innocent woman in order to bring down her dangerously enterprising husband. It all works up to a blood-drenched ending with a body count worthy of the final act of "Hamlet".

"Red King" would have benefitted from a bit more nuance and subtlety in some of the performances. For instance, Gavan O'Herlihy's performance as a gleeful psycho contains such a level of ham it could have been trained to search for truffles...

Up to a point there's a thematic ressemblance with the plot of "The Day of the Jackal", which, in my humble opinion, is the better movie in terms of fight-against-the-clock tension and suspense. (Here I'm referring to the great Zinnemann classic, rather than the later travesty of the same name.)

A tragic political thriller speculating in an assassination attempt on Gorbachev

[clanciai · 9/10 · 4 April 2020]

Everything goes wrong here, but gradually and only by small details, the tragedy being triggered by some children storming around in an apartment house, disturbing a delicate operation of briefing, leading to the wrong man getting classified information by accident. That gradúally puts Tom Skerritt on the job, who doesn't want it, who is compelled by circumstances to accept it and who involuntarily does all he can to bungle it. He is the problem here, as he constantly loses control and is utterly careless about his behaviour in the former Soviet Union, where he should have been aware that everyone was watching him as an alien and sometimes rampant American. Max von Sydow does all he can to help this delicate mission clear out of the extremely perilous shallows and actually seems to succeed, while his contact with KGB never is followed up - the one flaw in the plot. Helen Mirren is as reliable as ever playing her part to genuine credibility and is admirably consistent, for which she is ultimately rewarded, while poor Tom Skerritt gets stuck in the mess of political KGB and CIA intrigue. The story is interesting as an important documentary of the age, paying a vital tribute to Gorbachev - the audience will be rewarded by his presence towards the grand finale of the end. As a whole, the story is ingenious in its thorough insight in the dawning hope of the age of Gorbachev, and also the inside discussions of the CIA are highly enlightening, while the American president is never even mentioned. It's a complex thriller but very convincing in its contrivance of a probable tragedy as the outcome of an assumed assassination plot, and the acting is superb throughout.