From: leeper@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (mark.r.leeper)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: RASPUTIN
Date: 29 Jul 92 13:28:36 GMT
Organization: AT&T


                                  RASPUTIN
                      A film review by Mark R. Leeper

            Capsule review:  The familiar story of Rasputin in
     the court of Czar Nicholas is told from a Soviet
     perspective.  Overall nothing really special, but a few
     very nice sequences.  Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4).

     One of the most charismatic roles on the stage and screen is that
of Rasputin, the hypnotic monk who held Tsarina Alexandra of Russia in
his power.  He made her believe he was a great pious mystic at the same
time he was seizing power and leading a life of debauchery at the
expense of Tsar Nicholas's treasury.  It has been suggested that nobody
did more to bring about the Russian Revolution than did Rasputin.  The
role has been played by Conrad Veidt, Lionel Barrymore, Harry Barr,
Edmond Purdom, Christopher Lee, and Tom Baker, among others.
     In 1977, the Soviet Union decided to make their own film about this
notorious piece of Russian history.  Elim Klimov directed.  The film was
not completed until 1985.  Leonard Maltin ascribes this to too many
people deciding what the film should be and pulling different
directions.  The film was eventually cut from 146 to 107 minutes, and
that version is what is now available on video.  Much of it is static
and slow as Russian films often are, but some of the sequences are very
powerful.
     The story, as any good encyclopedia will tell you, is of the self-
proclaimed holy man who not so secretly has a life of sex and drinking
on the side.  He does, however, appear to have some sort of hypnotic
power, and two or three times he seems to have used it to save the life
of the hemophiliac son of Czar Nicholas.  The Czar's wife, Alexandra,
becomes obsessed with the monk.  The rumor spreads that the two have a
sexual relationship--even though this Russian propaganda film, which
would like nothing better than to show how corrupt the Czar and his
family were, never lowers itself to suggesting that the two had sex.
     In order to explain what has already happened, a prologue was put
on the film showing news footage and telling how Rasputin came to power.
Then Klimov chooses to focus in on the last month or so of Rasputin's
life.  As the story starts he is already a favorite with Alexandra.  The
rumors are already spreading that his relations with Alexandra have gone
too far.  And Nicholas is expressing his one dominant emotion--
bewilderment.  I have seen the Barrymore, the Lee, and the Baker
interpretations of the story, and this version tells the story pretty
much the same as the others, only slower and in more detail.  The one
difference the Russians put in is the assassin.  Usually the assassin is
made out to be as corrupt and stupid as everyone else.  In this film he
is handsome and clear-eyed.  In his army jacket and hat he looks like
the comic book hero Blackhawk.  Clearly we are supposed to identify with
him.  Even more than American films, Russian films equate handsome with
good.
     There are two very memorable sequences in RASPUTIN.  Intercut with
the story is newsreel footage showing what is happening with the war
(World War I) and the beating the Russians are taking.  One sequence
shows soldiers being fitted for artificial limbs.  The music is a toy
soldier march complete with the squeaking noise of mechanical joints.
It is a simple juxtaposition, but it says a lot.
     In another scene, a woman reluctantly gives herself to Rasputin.
Previously her husband was arrested for attacking Rasputin for
manhandling the woman in public.  Now to free her husband she has to
give Rasputin what he wanted.  With a minimum of nudity shown--a quick
shot of her breasts (still pretty daring for a Russian film)--we see her
face as she undresses, intercut with Rasputin's quivering animal face
getting longer on the screen as he approaches.
     RASPUTIN is a propaganda film every bit as much as  IVAN THE
TERRIBLE or ALEXANDER NEVSKY.  The intention is to make the Czar's court
seem as corrupt as possible.  There is already another charlatan in the
court before Rasputin, an insidious Tibetan who is fomenting his own
intrigues.  NEVSKY and IVAN each took swipes at Asians and RASPUTIN the
same.  The court of Nicholas is made to look bad, and Rasputin worse.
Rasputin's claims to be loved by the peasants, but of course in a Soviet
film the peasants are too smart to like the false holy man.
     RASPUTIN is a step down from some Soviet propaganda, especially
that of Eisenstein, but it is an engrossing artifact of Soviet film and
worth comparing to American renditions of the same story.  I rate it a
high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
                    Copyright 1992 by Mark Leeper