Customer Reviews

Stalin [VHS]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In the past, apologists for Stalin (including many of his victims) said that Stalin was good, but he was surrounded by bad people. This film turns this on its head saying that Stalin was bad, but he was surrounded by good people. Both of these are wrong--the leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution and the leaders of the USSR in the period following the revolution were all up to their necks in blood. Robert Duvall gives an excellent portrayal of Stalin, emphasizing that he, unlike his ranting partner in mass murder Hitler, was soft-spoken and basically uncharismatic. Duvall correctly does not use a "Russian" accented English because Stalin spoke Russian with a heavy Georgian accent. Having said this, the historical aspects of the film are very poor. First of all, Maximilian Schell's portrayal of Lenin is way off base. The Old Bolsheviks like Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Ordzhonikidze and Kirov are shown to be basically well-meaning people who got trapped in Stalin's web. This is untrue, they were all involved in mass terror, justifying it in the name of a "higher good". In Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago", he points out what a pathetic man Bukharin really was and how he so freely shed tears for the injustice committed to his person, and yet he had no pity on the millions of others who suffered. At the end of the film, Khruschev says that Stalin's crimes ("the millions" he liquidated) had to be accounted for, whereas,in reality, he himself took an active role in the Great Terror.
The film shows very little of what the effect of "Stalinism" was on the average Soviet citizen, with the exception of a scene where Stalin's wife confronts the effects of the mass famine in the Ukraine. The film does not really show the "cult of the personality". It would have been effective if the film had shown how, when Stalin would enter a hall full of people, the crowd would applaud for a very long time because everyone was afraid to be the first to stop clapping. Similarly, towards the end of the film, we see a physician nervously examining Stalin without any mention of the infamous "Doctors Plot" frame-up in which Jewish doctors were falsely accused of trying to murder top Soviet officials which would explain the physicians hesitancy in examing his famous patient.

In spite of the many faults of this film, I have still given it three stars rating because it is important for people to become aware of what this monster did to so many millions of innocent people and who was supported by millions of otherwise good people, both inside and outside the USSR.

I enjoyed this movie, and found it a very good portrayal of Stalin's reign, but some things bothered me; particularly, it seems to potray Lenin as sort of a "good guy" who lets a Revolutionary government on the right track fall into the hands of a madman. Since Lenin himself was a particularly vicious figure who killed more people in his brief rule than had been killed under the Czar in 40 years previous, I didn't think that was the right way to present him.

Even more importantly, though, they blow over the entire Great Patriotic War (i.e. World War II) in just a couple of scenes! I know the movie would have been very long if lots of extra scenes about the war were added, but I think a few other scenes from the movie could be cut to make room for arguably the most important part of Stalin's dictatorship. As it is, it goes from Stalin's cowardly reaction to the German invasion almost immediately to the end of the war.

Overall, though, don't let the criticisms above dissuade you from seeing it; the acting is excellent, and it shows quite well how rapidly post-revolutionary hopes were killed off under Stalin's madness. I especially liked the scene with the old woman chasing after the train yelling at Stalin's wife, trying to make sure the benevolent Stalin would learn about the starvation and brutality going on in the countryside and put a stop to it when in reality he was the very man who organized it. Nice....

I have to agree with the viewer who wished more had been included about the great patriotic war. To cover the reign of Stalin in depth, however, would take a really good miniseries along the lines of "Roots". If you are looking for some insight as to the inner workings of Stalin's regime, this is a good beginning. If this had been a theatrical release, it would have been an Oscar contender. Yes, the accents get a little cheesy. Sometimes they sound more like Scottish than Russian. As for the "laughable" make up jobs referred to in other reviews, I challenge you to watch it while leafing through Richard King's "The Commissar Vanishes". Then you will see just how uncanny the likenesses are. (Except for Vorishlikov who sports a mustache in the movie, but not in official photos.) For the record, though, Lenin did have a "dome head"!

I've done a lot or reading about Stalin, the USSR and the history of the communist movement. This is an almost completely accurate movie. The acting is superb and you can almost forget that you are watching Robert Duvall and actually seeing Josef Stalin

I agree with Leaming. Any time Hollywood depicts history, there are going to be issues of inaccuracy, artistic license, etc. In the case of the film STALIN, this is mostly due to the need to compress about thirty years into less than three hours. The portrayals of the primary characters are sometimes simplistic and inaccurate, but Bukharin and Kirov's characters (for example) are portrayed so as to accentuate the perception of Stalin as a monster (which is accurate). In other words, the truth is adapted somewhat to generate a dramatic foil. Films are never a substitute for reading the real history, but I find that they often whet an appetite when one did not previously exist. The mini-series PETER THE GREAT with Maximilian Schell in the title role is another great example of a film that generated popular interest in Tsarist Russia. SHOGUN, ROUGH RIDERS, LAST SAMURAI, GLADIATOR, GODS AND GENERALS, SHARPE'S RIFLES -- all are examples of films that prompted people to actually read history. So, take the films for what they are -- all in all, everyone who loves history should encourage this terrific trend in film-making!

When I first saw Duvall as Stalin, I did not recognize him. He gave a virtuoso performance. Julia Ormon was also good as his wife. The narration by Stalin's daughter kept the movie on track. While the portrayal of Krushchev is a bit stereotypical, it does not matter as much, since his role in Stalin's life was minimal. I thought the historical footage they used was fabulous, especially that portraying the Russian Revolution. Overall, a first rate movie.

To tell the truth I would not have recognized Duvall in the role he played as Stalin. Nevertheless he did a masterful job even had the Russian/Georgian accent down to a certain degree. Ive seen this film several times which enabled me to know who all the major and minor characters were. Now I feel I have a better grasp of Russian history during this turbulent period of the revolution and Stalin's reign.
Of course as most films go its not 100 percent accurate but comes close and the viewer will get a lesson of Russian history during the first half of the 20th century. Like the other reviews it hurriedly moves over "The Great Patriotic War" in just a few scenes.
The film will also help reveal that Stalin was worst mass murderer in the 20th century or even of all time which most people assume that honor goes to Adolf Hitler. This is known as the other "holocaust" which is lot less known then the Jewish one of Nazi Germany.
I would highly reccomend the film to any enthusiast of Russian history and see how the Russian people suffered during Stalins reign.

"Stalin" is absolutely the best film ever made about Josef Stalin, the man that largely simultaneously built and ruined Russia for decades to come. He was such a paradox and master of creating an image. He probably would have enjoyed the film himself.

Duvall did a great job mastering the character, although his accent was a little weak. A great supporting cast delivered passionate line after line too. It is excellent!

along with Hitler! Portrayed excellently by Robert Duvall,Stalin mercilessly executed tens of millions of people.As also mentioned in the movie several times, he was a ferocious anti-semitic-He called Trotsky "The King of the Jews".He even cursed himself for having a jewish son-in-law.He cleansed all his -potential- political opponents.Trotsky -who virtually looked as if like the real himself in the movie- was killed brutally by a spaniard Stalinist agent after several attempts in Coyoacan,Mexico City.You can also watch that, in the movie "Assasination of Trotsky" beatifully played by Alain Delon.
After some great holocausts exceeding those of Hitler,Stalin was preparing for a last spectacular one for the Jews -after the jewish doctors affair.But the Zionists were quicker and said to have prepared his dubious -for some- death and prevented all that happening.
Also note that the hypocrite Beria -his security chief- was executed later that year Stalin died.That was not mentioned in the movie but if you watch it you can guess why.

Duvall and Schell are in their roles of a lifetime as both Stalin and Lenin. Julia Ormond seems too classy to be believable, and Roshan Seth doesn't look like Beria at all; Bob Hoskins should have been cast for the part. Aside from that, it's one of the best docudramas ever made, and only goes to prove that Duvall is the most talented, and underrated, actor alive! I saw him in "Wrestling Ernest Hemingway" and didn't believe an American could play a Cuban so thoroughly convincingly as he did. You just couldn't tell the difference. Same thing here!