It's Just Word Play

Rating: 8/10 (27 November 2017)

"It's just f***ing word play" - Nikita Khrushchev
Armando Iannucci has spent much of his career predicting the political future: whether it's pre-empting overly bombastic news graphics with "The Day Today"; foretelling leadership changes within UK politics in "Time Trumpet"; and acting as a think-tank for any recent UK government with "The Thick of It". But probably bored of inadvertently directing the course of the UK, he now turns his art to the past. The Soviet past.
As you may know, popular Georgian Joseph Stalin died in the mid- Twentieth Century. Frenchmen Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin made a graphic novel about said event. Then a group of British writers turned it into a film script. We all know the routine. Finding the urine- soaked body the next morning, his supporting cast, made-up of names you've already forgotten from GCSE history confusedly debate what to do about the situation, choosing to work as a collective.
Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) is appointed Acting General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, but real power is hidden behind him, as a power struggle emerges between Beria (Simon Russell Beale) and Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi), as each try to manipulate the situation and get the support of the rest of the collective.
This leads to lots of typical Iannucci fast dialogue and improvised banter in the workplace, as each actor brings a unique personality to their historical figure, such as Paul Whitehouse's cockney Mikoyan, Rupert Friend's drunken public schoolboy Vasily Stalin and Adrian McLoughlin's dirty old man Stalin himself. As with the likes of "Blackadder" before it, comedy is a good way of re-teaching history, placing historical fact in an accessible format.
Buscemi's line as Khrushchev denotes the quick wit of the writers and cast, but also the very nature of politics and how it is all about what is said, and what is not said. Joking aside, the tricks become more underhanded and plotting more deceitful. To succeed, each must eliminate his opposition as quickly as possible; the more ruthless the better. Every act has a distinct purpose to it: to gain the upper hand. Though this being Soviet Russia, getting bumped-up the order on the news is not enough.
The end takes a sinister twist as each is exposed for their previous and present crimes, with the victor the one able to vilify the other fastest. This is handled by the cast in a day-at-the-office manner; a stoic nature born when making decisions affecting the lives and deaths of others.
While without the sinister undertones of endless death, today's political playground of every man for himself and acting before the next man still holds true. An observation on the basic human nature of power struggle and that all political hierarchies are doomed from the outset.
GCSE History: B