IMDb RATING
7.0/10
2.6K
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The life and career of the brutal Soviet dictator, Iosif Stalin.The life and career of the brutal Soviet dictator, Iosif Stalin.The life and career of the brutal Soviet dictator, Iosif Stalin.
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
2.6K
YOUR RATING
Jeroen Krabbé
- Bukharin
- (as Jeroen Krabbe)
András Bálint
- Zinoviev
- (as Andras Balint)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaTo prepare for the role, Robert Duvall watched numerous hours of newsreels, read many books about Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, and spoke to Russians who remembered him. He said that playing Stalin was the most challenging role of his career.
- GoofsThe same train car (MET46) is used several times.
- Quotes
Nikita Khrushchev: Have you thought about it? About what we said after Stalin dies?
Vyacheslav Molotov: Like what?
Nikita Khrushchev: His crimes?
Vyacheslav Molotov: What crimes?
Nikita Khrushchev: Millions...
Vyacheslav Molotov: Nikita, you are too emotional. You talk too much. Who are we to judge Stalin. Before him we were a weak, backward country, Now look at us. We control half of Europe... the whole of China... We have the atomic bomb... We command respect. Without Stalin, it would have take twenty years longer.
Nikita Khrushchev: I don't believe it. Without the purges, the arrests, the killings... without Stalin, we could have been a great country.
Vyacheslav Molotov: Our history required Stalin.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 50th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1993)
- SoundtracksThe Swan
from "Carnival of the Animals"
by Camille Saint-Saëns
Used as background music for archive footage
Review
Featured review
Historical Accuracy
I re-watched this film in order to put faces to the names, as I was studying for a Soviet History midterm. In terms of the film's accuracy, it is largly excellent (from what I have read). However, the tendency of the film to separate the good guys (e.g., Bucharin) from the bad (es.g., Stalin, Beria, Ezhov) is not great historiography, but makes the film easier to digest.
It is hard to know what effect the death of Stalin's wife had on him. Clearly the film needed an overarching plot structure to attempt an explanation of a complex man. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get inside Stalin's head. Duvall's performance is masterful, I think, because he manages to capture the LACK of essence of Stalin. If anything, the man was driven by hatred and little else--a hatred that is difficult to articulate, but which was at least admirably displayed in the film.
It is hard to know what effect the death of Stalin's wife had on him. Clearly the film needed an overarching plot structure to attempt an explanation of a complex man. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get inside Stalin's head. Duvall's performance is masterful, I think, because he manages to capture the LACK of essence of Stalin. If anything, the man was driven by hatred and little else--a hatred that is difficult to articulate, but which was at least admirably displayed in the film.
helpful•162
- jpfri
- Nov 10, 1998
Details
Box office
- 2 hours 52 minutes
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