The Admiral, directed by Andei KravchukVendetta FilmsRRP $34.95One of the big things that the Russian film industry has learned from the US is that audiences love Hollywood blockbuster movies.Now, with the 2008 film The Admiral, the Russians have shown ho
The Admiral, directed by Andei Kravchuk
Vendetta Films
RRP $34.95
One of the big things that the Russian film industry has learned from the US is that audiences love Hollywood blockbuster movies.
Now, with the 2008 film The Admiral, the Russians have shown how they can take on some of the best and worst aspects of such films.
It is with one of the most expensive Russian movies ever made and it shows in some of the sumptuous photography and settings.
It is also an indication of the changing cultural climate of Russia where many individuals who have previously been written out of history are making a reappearance and the past glories of the country are being recognised and celebrated.
The director Andei Kravchuk has previously shown his ability to look at the other side of Russia with The Italian, which was set in a Russian orphanage.
The Admiral follows the career of Alexander Kolchak, who was a decorated admiral in the Russian Navy before the Great War. He was subsequently put in command of the Black Sea Fleet but after the Russian Revolution was exiled to the US.
He returned to fight with the White Russian forces, eventually becoming the supreme governor of White Russia. Had the White Russians succeeded in overthrowing the Red Army, he would probably have become the leader of Russia, rather than Lenin and Stalin.
Threaded through this history is his love affair with Anna Timireva, who was the wife of a naval friend. The film follows the course of their relationship in which they were separated by convention, history and politics.
The film is book ended by the appearance of an aged Anna Timireva during a production of War and Peace being filmed in the 1960s. She is about to play a small part in the film until her past comes to light and the film’s political commissar wants her removed from the set.
The director, however, insists on having faces like hers for the production.
The film recounts the largely forgotten war between the White Russians and the Red Army in which the Czechs under the control of a French general had troops fighting alongside the Russians. It also recreates the grand days of pre-Revolutionary Russia, including an appearances by the ultra religious Nicholas II.
While there is a grand historical sweep to the film, the love interest has a banality and superficiality that undermines the overall dramatic impact.
The historical events are well depicted, including Kolchak guiding his ship through a minefield, and one of the heroic and horrific last charges of the White Russians against the Red Army, even though they had run out of ammunition.
The film has something of Dr Zhivago about it with lots of snow, fur hats and angst but it doesn’t really get to grips with the character of Kolchak, who was a more complex character than the one on screen, having been a polar explorer and writer as well as having a brilliant military career.
