Customer Reviews

The Assassination of Trotsky

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Richard Burton and Alain delon star in this tight well acted thriller about the last days of Leon Trotsky, a former Russian delegate being pursued by a calculating professinal hitman looking to make a name for himself. This film was certainly done with charm and wit, and having Delon cast as the trecherous Frank Jackson was brilliant. Alain Delon has the abilty and the skill to convey an unsculpotus assassin. A well made political thriller for it`s time.

In the late 1960s and early 70s, there was a remarkable popularity in political thrillers (e.g. 'Z', 'The Day of the Jackal'), in which normally dull subjects like history, politics, civil service procedurals, etc., were given excitement by their being placed in a suspense context. Losey, typically, makes an anti-thriller political movie - even if you don't know your history, the title is a give away: the key sequences that could have been suspenseful (especially the assassination) are deliberately obscured and fragmented. Losey is more interested in historical representation, the way Trotsky in particular, and Marxism in general, was turned from history into myth, symbol and spectacle - his film abounds in books, speeches, films, murals, parades, photographs, all trying to impose their version. Losey's film thrives on paradox - his man-of-action hero spends the movie virtually imprisoned in his home with his family; the reactionary assassin is the real revolutionary, destroying not only Trotsky and his family, but the very notion of 'identity' from which Trotsky (and all Great Men) derives his power (Losey makes brilliant use of Alain Delon and memories of his famous roles like the hitman in 'Le Samourai'). 'Assassination' is more interesting than entertaining: the pace is deadly slow, the colour muddy, and the performances (Delon excepted) poor. The elaborate opening sequence of a May Day parade in Mexico makes the film a must-see.

The film is a psychological study of Trotsky's murderer, Mercader. I just watched the film and noticed nothing of Burton's goatee coming loose, as alleged by another reviewer. It's a little hard to get beyond Trotsky, the Russian, speaking with a U.K. accent, but that dissipates with time. The film is slightly dated in 1970s-era hip cinematic technique (freeze frame, panning to close up, etc.). But so what? It is not a superb film, but it is not catastrophic.

While Richard Burton has been acknolwledged as a great actor, his performance in "The Assassination of Trotsky" was downright atrocious. His acting compels the viewer to believe that Trotsky was a whimsical old man, who kept on talking about the "Good Ol' Days". For instance, when talking to his fictitious grandson, he calls himself an "Old Revolutionary", Burton forces the less informed to believe that Lev Davidovich Trotsky was a megalomaniac who wanted nothing but attention.

In addition, the producers should have had Burton grow a "Real" goatee as opposed to the obviously fake one that the prop guy provided(or they could at least have gotten a goatee that looked like the one Trotsky had), and of course, Burton could have lost a little weight for the role. At no point in the movie was Burton believable in his role as Leon Trotsky, frankly, with Burton in the role of L.D. Trotsky, I couldn't wait until the pic-axe ending. If this were a Sunday night Movie on the Disney channel, with no-name actors, I wouldn't be as dissapointed as I was, because TV Movies are renowned as being mediocrities. To the potential buyer of this movie, I would recommend that you just buy Trotsky's Auto-Bio or something about Trotsky by a historian, because this movie is completely atrocious.

One of the few movies that attempt to portray this historical event. The intrigue and international events that lead to the climax of the film are realistic and exciting. Richard Burton gives one of his most unusual performances as Leon Trotsky. Mr. Burton utilizes his skills to portray the long pursued Trotsky.

Although other reviewers haven't mentioned it, every VHS version of this film that I have rented has mistakenly switched two of the film reels so that the narrative chronology is out of sequence. Otherwise, this is an interesting Brechtian study of Trotsky and Jacson in which Burton and Delon are as much playing themselves as their ostensible characters. As one critic put it at the time, "Burton playing Churchill, Burton playing Trotsky; what's the difference?" The non-psychologizing alienation effect is deliberate.

When this movie was shown in Sweden back in 1972, a small and somewhat cranky group of Trotskyists became very upset.

This group, known as Posadists, picketed one of the cinemas showing the movie, and passed out a leaflet. The leaflet said: "Trotsky was a mighty warrior. His pencil was his sword and his eyeglasses were his shield".

And no, I don't know if this is a true story, but I heard it second hand from several sources. The Posadists also believed in UFOs and wanted Brezhnev to nuke America. Or so the grapevine says. The truth may be very different, but since nobody seems to take this movie seriously, I guess I could report this funny rumour...

As for the movie itself, I've only seen it once. And no, it wasn't very good. Trotsky, after all, was a MIGHTY WARRIOR. LOL!

joseph losey directed richard burton in this bizarre apologia for one of the 20th centurys biggest losers: a man who manages to be held in contempt by both the left and the right. it would be acceptable if anything about the movie were not the height of amateurishness, but thats not the case. trotsky lived with my great grandparents family in new york in the years before the russian revolution; if he was as obnoxious a boarder as this is a film, i hope they overcharged him for the rent!

This movie has become something of a camp classic, and another in the long, numbing line of perfectly dreadful movies made by Richard Burton. Burton is ridiculously miscast in the role of Trotsky. Not only is he physically wrong for the part (too fat, bloated and drunk), his attempts at interpreting Trotsky's character are ludicrous and extraordinarily pitiful. The make-up is another irritating element: the pathetic stick-on goatee Burton wears literally comes close to falling off in several scenes, which brings some much-needed hilarity to the leaden script. Watch when Burton screams various lines as the goatee comes dangerously close to falling off onto his chin. Hilarious stuff!

Another ridiculous scene is the climatic assassination, where the viewer urgently roots for Burton to die an agonizing death. Why? Because he has just put us, the collective viewers, in a catatonic state for the past 2 hours, sitting through this bloated, bombastic turkey of a film. This is a wretchedly dreadful movie, but hilarious in parts.

This is a very disappointingly boring movie, lethargically acted in slow motion (despite the stellar cast), with a poor script and no insight into the historical era or the psychology of the potentially fascinating character(s) involved.