2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth watching !!! Heads up history buffs !, June 17, 2010
This review is from: I Was Stalin's Bodyguard (DVD)
I believe this DVD of Joseph Stalin, as told by one of his bodyguards, Alexis, is worth watching despite the above low star ratings above. His memories are well implemented and you can see the recorded historical moments in his eyes, emotions. True Stalin was a murderous tyrant which is forever recorded in history. At the end the former bodyguard (in his 80s at time of recording) teaches little Russian children (pioneers) how top play the accordian ... - etc. You really can sense history thru-out the video. I give it a very good rating. If you are a history buff - then this is a must!!!!!! A++++++++
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"When Allilueva [Stalin's wife] shot herself Stalin suffered terribly." Not a word why she did, nor any whys are addressed here., January 23, 2008
This review is from: I Was Stalin's Bodyguard (DVD)
"I was connected with the Bolshoi theatre"..."from 1935 as commandant of the government's guard." "The commandant must know absolutely everything;" how the wires lead even, Alexei Rybin, our interlocutor herein, adds. "Show me where that wire leads." If an engineer can't answer "I say then cut out a meter off here." It's indicative of the way things worked in communist Russia, you could argue. And, Mr. Rybin, as part of the security detail for Stalin and his ilk, particularly during the 1930s, illustrates this during this documentary of sorts. It's less of a documentary, actually, than an extended interview (recorded in 1989) with this individual. And it's not really an interview, actually, either, since nobody actually asks him anything.
Their are two parts to this program. The first is without organization in which Mr. Rybin regales us with fond memories of Stalin doing unusual things: stopping his car at a bus stop and offering to take some of those there out of the rain and back to their homes in cars of his motorcade; how Stalin called his cook after she retired and when he heard of her meager pension had it increased; how he would sometimes call composers or directors and make "constructive" suggestions to them, etc.
Mr Rybin starts the program describing how Stalin died. He relates how secret police thug Laventri Beria told those there not to tell anyone yet what had happened and how all there seemed afraid of this person. (Illustrative of this, he relates what a lady informer told him about Beria too; how when she looked at a picture of Stalin while dining with Beria that Beria said: "Why are you looking at him? I'm the real leader of the country, not him." Aside: Krushchev had Beria shot not long after when supposedly Beria tried to put his feelings into practice.) He also tells us that Politburo member Anastas "Mikoyan came to the dacha when Stalin died. In the store-room was a portrait of Stalin. He tore it down and started to tear it to pieces." He then describes Stalin's funeral (as we see panned still pictures of that event). Then it's just one tangent after another for the next 38 minutes: "When Stalin stood up, none of them [Politburo members] dared to sit down." "When Allilueva [Stalin's wife] shot herself Stalin suffered terribly." After that, according to Rybin, Stalin "cut off all relations with women." "The guards never once noticed him pay attention to an actress." "He went to her grave sometimes at night." Nothing is mentioned, though, about Stalin's "work," and not even a vaguely critical word is uttered against Stalin or anything he did or directed to have done. Moreover, the description provided by Amazon above: "What emerges is a singular portrait of a violent and complex era during which Stalin consolidated his power through brutal repression, yet led the Soviet Union to victory in World War II " is taken directly off the packaging of this DVD; & is more marketing than comment, because this program says almost nothing about either.
The second half of this program (almost equal in length) is a lot more focused, but not as interesting. Video of the Bolshoi theatre is shown (more modern color interior footage, as well as period black & white footage of actual performances) as Mr Rybin tells us how the theatre was mined when the Germans were nearing Moscow; & how secret police women, with pistols in their purses, sat amongst the crowd at performances "just in case" of problems. "After all, My Rybins states, "My main task was to guarantee the complete safety of the government while they were in the theatre." The last ten minutes of this program make little sense, however. They show Mr Rybin either in a music classroom or speaking about how he taught music upon his retirement from the secret police. This segment concludes with him telling his students & us: "If you study music, you'll be a man. You'll develop love of work and diligence. Your memory improves and your mind sharpens." Then we see period footage of Young Pioneers addressing Stalin in a theatre: "Greetings to our beloved Stalin. Thank you for our happy childhood" blah blah blah. As Stalin looks at what appears to be a 40 foot canvas painting of himself hanging on the stage these children sing to Stalin and the program concludes; but not before Mr. Rybin has to wipe a tear from his eye in a cutaway shot. Cheers
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Promises much, delivers little., September 20, 2009
This review is from: I Was Stalin's Bodyguard (DVD)
We might imagine that Stalin is still alive with this unfocused poorly produced documentary. It is in Russian but that's not the worst of it. An old man apparently one of the last cronies of Stalin peppers us with stories of the old paranoid. But they could be entirely fabricated, Who'd know? He cries over his long dead master. Much is unfocused. He was a security agent for the ballet which apparently Stalin enjoyed. He is also paranoid as if Stalin could suddenly appear. Fooled you. I'm not really dead. Stalin was in fact dead for a long time just laying there in bed. Everybody was afraid he was just sleeping. You could be shot for waking him up. Or not waking him up. In the end this old gentlman (I've forgotten his name) shows footage of his music classes. Pass on this one.
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