Customer Reviews

Archangel

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Archangel" is a treat for fans of mystery, international intrigue, and the spy genre. Shot in the dead of winter in Russia the film is visually stunning and eye opening to the beauty of the country. Before you watch the film make a big mug of hot chocolate and jump into your "Snuggy" and hunker down in your favorite chair, for I assure you the Russian winter transcends the television screen and will envelop you as you watch the movie.

The story is a complex and dangerous tale involving a race to find the illegitimate son of Stalin. It is a wild idea that somehow seems almost possible and certainly is filled with exciting possibilities as the story unfolds. All involved in this film do their very best to make it work and in the end they succeed.

Daniel Craig is just wonderful in his role as the Dr. Kelso, a bookish expert on Stalin and communist Russia who is drawn into an adventure of a lifetime during a conference in Moscow. Released just a year before "Casino Royale" Mr. Craig shows his range in this early foray into Bond like territory. His performance is as solid to the bone as it is captivating and even at times, moving. He carries the film with ease, and draws another memorable character in his impressive list of credits. .

The only disappointment for me was that "Archangel" being made for British television is not presented in widescreen. If you are a fan of Daniel Craig's you are in for a treat, if you are a fan of adventure, action, and mystery this is a must for your DVD collection

A stunning masterpiece with a great cast! A British Professor specializing in Russian history, primarily Stalin, is pulled into a communist plot. Blinded by his love of facts and accurate documentation, the Professor is lured into a mystery surrounding Stalin's past by an old man who claims to have buried a diary that reveals important and unknown truths about the ruthless dictator. The secret turns out to be one that can impact Russia's future. Intent on finding the truth, the Professor, a journalist friend, and a call girl search for the pieces, not realizing that they are being used to further a diabolical plot. The plan unfolds and it may be too late to stop.

Chrissy K. McVay - Author

This film took me back to Russia. The scenery and characters played true to life. The ugly rows upon rows of apartments, the village homes, the Moscow winter slush, and the beautiful white Russian snow, which seems to hide everything that is wrong and ugly.

I fell in love with Yekaterina Rednikova. She reminded me of some of the wonderful interpreters I had on my many trips to Moscow and the interior. Daniel Craig was lifelike. Just like you or me. (No Schwarzenegger, Pierce Brosnan, or Bruce Willis here). Gabriel Macht was an irritant. A necessary fool.

The story, based on the book by Robert Harris, played up to the world's fascination with Stalin, Hitler and the like. Okay, but not as good as Snow Wolf by Glenn Meade. The movie played up to my fascination with Russia and its people. I was not disappointed.

Archangel is a well written and finely acted action thriller. A lot like a "National Treasure" for adults. Fast paced and with enough real history to make it interesting. With all the plot twists fitted together making it easy to enjoy.

ARCHANGEL (2005) Directed by Jon Jones Based on the novel by Robert Harris

Starring Daniel Craig and Avtandil Makharadze as Joseph Stalin.

A Harvard historian, in Post Soviet Moscow for a historian convention, is approached by the last surviving Russian to have witnessed the death of Joseph Stalin and is soon hot upon the trail of what appears to be the lost Diary of the Communist monster.

He soon.......to his utter horror.........learns that he is mistaken and the secret he is pursuing is one that could have catastrophic consequences for Russia.........and then the world.

Without giving too much away, the film is very similar to THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL only sans the Science Fiction/horror elements.

However one is not at all reticent to give away that this a surprisingly(considering the year, subject matter and star) excellent film in nearly every respect. It is superbly directed with a solid sense of pace. The dialogue is very good. The acting is mostly extremely good. The fellow playing Stalin could be better. The usually constipated Craig's presence does not muck it up since his character is not especially proactive and really a sort of witness to all that transpires so it makes no real difference what he does or how well or not Craig plays his part.

What makes the film truly exceptional is its handling of history. The picture is entirely comfortable with its subject and this is the type of movie---where in spite of being fictional---gives its audience a workable knowledge of the history involved without being didactic and more.......using the history to add to the suspense and power of the story. There is even a scene where someone wonders why knowing history is important and is promptly told why.........and the subsequent events then prove the points being made. The film is THAT solidly constructed as a story in that what characters say actually have importance, meaning and theme and are not just time killing until the next money shot.

The film's main subtext--which is utterly unique in my cinematic experience--concerns exactly modern Russia.......and the new generation......coming to terms and hopefully rejecting their bloody Communist past. The film is more subtly symbolic than one expects from the modern film......since.....to be frank.......the modern film's idea of symbolism and subtly is to make a movie called THE ASSASSINATION OF GEORGE BUSH.

All of the history referenced is accurate. The film actually uses the word Communist!! And in pejorative terms!!! The film has NO patience with anything less than its complete moral condemnation and historical refutation. The film's menace is a real one........and sadly speaks to current events.........but the resolution is both dramatically and historically correct. One could almost feel the murdered millions nodding silently in approval.

It is so very gratifying to encounter a film that is both rigorously intelligent and expects its audience to be so as well.

The rare modern Classic that has..not surprisingly... slipped through the cracks.

See it if at all possible.

Russian history enthusiasts will love this film. This movie made me wonder about the story of the USSR and the rise of Josef Stalin. Unlike other notorious world leaders, Stalin (the focus of this tale) was more ruthless and murderous than any of the other infamous dictators in history combined. A fearsome threat to his own people as well as the world, even the USA, Great Britan, France and the WW-II allies feared taking action against Stalin and instead fought with him against Hitler and Germany. Stalin died in 1953.

If you want to know more about Russia's most ruthless dictator, Josef Stalin, see this movie.

Arch Angel, is a superb mystery/thriller (based on the book) about a university history professor searching for answers to a very young female hired to work for Stalin during his reign. The story takes place in modern day Russia. The search for answers takes this professor and his party of three to a remote Russian city known as "Arch Angel".

The story is a riveting, action packed, nail biter. But the ending left much to be desired--from the DVD I saw there really was no ending. This is the only reason it gets 4 stars instead of 5. Much of the story, but not all, is written in English captions.

See this movie. It sparked my interest in Stalin and I read more about this dictator in Winipekia, which has some superior and unique online information.

Stalin was a horrifying man unlike any other. He made Saddam Hussien look like Santa Claus.

This movie exposes (to those who were unaware) the unhappy fact that Stalin is still very popular in Russia, that mighty empire which has lived by murder and theft for hundreds of years. The Boys from Brazil was not credible. Very few Germans long for the "good old Hitler days." Alas, opinion polls show that a large chunk of Russians do wish for the return of good old Joe. This movie was largely shot in the free Baltic state of Latvia. It shows how bold the Balts are to allow this poke in the eye of the "great Russian nation" to be shot in their country. Even more so since Latvia has a large and agressive group of retired Soviet civil servants who have decided to retire there. If you liked the "Boys from Brazil," give this one a look. No Gregory Peck or Laurence Olivier, but a very good cast indeed.

Like Layer Cake, this is another vehicle of sorts for Mr. Craig to rehearse his Bond role. He just doesn't handle a gun in this one. But aside from that this is still a very entertaining film featuring a gorgeous and utterly sexy Russian actress named Yekaterina Rednikova. The premise is not entirely credible but the action is exciting in a Jason Bourne kind of way. Craig simply steals the camera every time it is trained on him. With a less predictable ending this could have been a great feature film. Nevertheless, it should hold your interest as you watch the best-ever James Bond in the making.

If movie thrillers can be thoughtful, literate and exciting -- and with no computer-created mega-explosions -- this fine British TV adaptation of the Robert Harris novel does the job. Archangel stars Daniel Craig and was made before Craig hit the big time as James Bond. Without the Bond fervor, this little-known film might never have been released on DVD. It tells the story of British professor Fluke Kelso (Craig), a middle-aged man who had made a name for himself with impeccable research on Soviet history, concentrating on the life and career of Josef Stalin. Two flashy, best-selling books made him a star in academia. But for the last three years, Kelso has been drifting through a burned-out life of dissatisfaction. That will change dramatically when, at a Moscow symposium attended by other historians, he is approached by a coarse old man, Papu Rapava, with a story of the last hours of Stalin. Rapava had been a guard for Lavrenti Beria when Georgy Malenkov calls Beria and pleads with him to come immediately to Blizhny, the name for Stalin's dacha outside Moscow. Stalin is dying of a massive stroke. Beria, shrewd and ruthless, takes the little key Stalin always carried. With the key and with Rapava driving, Beria races to the Kremlin and finds a small metal box locked away in Stalin's office. And in the box are some papers which Beria buries late that night in the yard of his Moscow fortified home, with Rapava digging the hole. When Beria was arrested and executed, Rapava was tortured to tell about the box. He said he knew nothing, guessing he'd be executed, too, if the new masters of the Kremlin suspected anything. He spent years in a gulag, but he lived. Well, that's the story Papu Rapava told Kelso.

In the next four days Kelso finds the box has been dug up and is missing. He'll meet Zinaida (Yekaterina Rednikova), a sullen Russian call girl who turns out to be Rapava's estranged daughter. He'll talk with Mamantov, a clever and unrepentant ex-Soviet senior official who now is running for office in the new Russia. He'll encounter O'Brian (Gabriel Macht), a big, friendly American television reporter who seems to know almost as much as Kelso. And he'll find the bloody, naked body of Rapava, tortured and left for dead in the grimy bathtub of an abandoned apartment.

Kelso is not sure what to believe. He's attacked by two thugs. Papu Rapava's daughter suddenly decides to help find the box. Major Suvorin of the FSB picks him up and tells him to be on the next flight out of Moscow. All the while Kelso knows that if he can find the box, read those long-ago documents and publish what he reads, he and his career will flash right back to the top again. When Kelso and Zinaida finally locate the box and read the papers, they find themselves reading the stained and mouldering diary of a girl thrilled to leave her home in Archangel to go to Moscow and serve the great father, Stalin. They find her medical records and reports from the NKVD on her family. They realize she bore a child, a boy, after she was sent back to Archangel, and that she died days after giving birth. The boy was adopted. Kelso and Zinaida leave for Archangel just before the winter snows arrive. And in the deep, frigid forests north of Archangel, Kelso, with O'Brian tagging along, encounters man-traps, a silent, abandoned collection of wooden huts...with smoke drifting from one of them. So now bring on the paranoia, ruthlessness, an attack by the Spetsnaz, death and a desperate escape. Bring on what the new Russia might revert to.

Archangel is a thoughtful thriller, but with enough excitement and momentum to keep things moving. It follows the book closely. The DVD looks very good. As an extra it includes the bios of Craig and Macht. Unfortunately, the book's fascinating re-creation of the Stalin gang has had to be reduced. Beria, Malenkov, Bulganin, Khrushchev, Molotov...after a few vodkas, Stalin would make them dance. Nearly all of the cast is Russian, with the movie filmed entirely in Moscow and Riga, Latvia. The movie looks overcast and cold, with frigid, drizzling weather. What makes Archangel work so well are the "what if" speculations by Robert Harris and Daniel Craig's fine performance. Craig has a rough face, not quite handsome. He can dominate a scene. He's also a mature actor with experience and versatility. Compare the job he does in Love Is the Devil as the slow-witted gay lover of Francis Bacon with the hetro-active, action-minded James Bond. I hope the James Bond franchise doesn't turn Craig into just another star-enhanced pretty face.

For those who like to read, give the novels by Robert Harris a chance. Two of his finest include Fatherland and Enigma. In my opinion, the movie Enigma, with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard, is a fine, clever and thoughtful thriller. And for those who enjoy Archangel, both the book and the movie, try Robin White's novel, Siberian Light. It's another first-class, frigid thriller set in the frozen lands of Siberia, with an interesting, thinking hero.

Archangel
Enigma
Enigma (Special Edition)
Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
Siberian Light

ARCHANGEL (the name of a northern Russian town that hides secrets the story discloses) is a film that is not without flaws both in script and in production, but it is a movie of intrigue that makes for a good night's adventure of escape...and political philosophizing.

Dr. Fluke Kelso (Daniel Craig) is an American professor of history visiting Moscow to speak out against the persistent (though small) consistency who revere the dead Stalin and long for the Communist days of yore. He is immediately under suspicion, meets and old man Old Papu (Valery Chernyak) who tells Kelso he has information that will change his attitude. And the intrigue begins. Old Papu is the last of the old group of bodyguards of Stalin and was present at Stalin's death, witnessing the transfer of some important information to Beria (Yervant Arzumanyan) that was to be hidden forever. The Moscow police begin to trail Kelso, kill Old Papu, Kelso discovers Old Papu has a daughter Zinaida (Yekaterina Rednikova) who despite studying for law is making her living as a high-class hooker, and in time Kelso engages Zinaida on a chase to find the hidden documents her father has sequestered. Along the line the obligatory television press correspondent, American O'Brian (Gabriel Macht) fast talks his way into participating in the chase and the strange group of men adamant to find the lost documents - a group led by Mamantov (Lev Prygunov) - attack and pursue the triad all the way to Archangel where the truths about Stalin's last days are made known: in flashbacks we see that Stalin (Avtandil Makharadze) had a lover Anna (Anna Gerasimova) who was impregnated by the dying Stalin and gave birth to a son Josef (Konstantin Lavroneko) who is just waiting for the right time to make Stalinist Communism rise again. How all this intrigue resolves is the fairly impressive ending to the story.

This may sound like a flimsy thread for a story but here it works, primarily due to the conviction of Daniel Craig as Kelso, Gabriel Macht as O'Brian and a cast of Russian actors who are very fine. There is a problem: no subtitles are give, except in Spanish, and though the majority of the dialogue is in English (the Russian dialogue is translated) the Russian accents are so thick that the actors' English can barely be understood. The cinematography captures Latvia and Russia effectively and the musical score by Robert Lane is additive. Not a great movie but a tight and entertaining one and one with enough recounting pf the history of Stalinist USSR to make us remember important facts! Grady Harp, November 06