Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Victor Khomenko (i) on July 03, 2000 at 06:54:08:

I am a good man, I am, so I rented Citizen X. After we were done watching some decadent European flicks, I put it on. My wife started screaming. She remembered seeing it. I too remembered some bits and pieces. She threatened to divorce me if I didn't stop that violent movie. I kept saying that this was my homework and that Richard would not look too kindly at such lack of character on my part. In the meantime the tape was rolling, bodies falling and characters developing. She finally softened up enough to become subdued, so we could finish watching it, and somewhere around the middle of it she even started responding to questions in a normal human voice.

Anyway, a brief summary. If you had to form your impressions about the recent Russia based on this movie - you could do whole lot worse than this. It gives you pretty good flavor in many areas, puts a bit too much Hollywood in few others, but generally tells a good story. One could probably just get absorbed into watching and studying the small details that are abound - interiors, delapidated buildings, people's dwellings, leader's portraits on the office wall (starting with Brezhnev, going through Andropov - Kirilenko missing - and finishing with Gorbatchev - good touch), clothing, cars, etc - it is all pretty authentic. So some Russian soldiers carry the Romanian version of AK-47's, while they should really be armed with the AK-74's, but that is not such big deal. The executioner using a Glock instead of a more likely Makarov (where seventy years ago his NKVD predecessor would be armed with a then-fashionable short-barreled Nagant revolver) - still no big deal. The execution scene seems very true, with all the details fitting the many descriptions available from many sources - down to that corny drain.

Just few days ago we read a rather detailed account of execution of Lavrenty Beria - bunch of Soviet top brass using his body as bullet stop. Yep, that's the bloody underbelly of the Soviet system, allright.

So all in all, a good account and yes, the Miranda seems to be missing, but then again, their court system is very different with no jury, but three judges (as far as I recall, having never been there).

BTW, still can't get my mind off that last scene. Perhaps you recall a flick about two professional killers, where Peter Riegert plays one of them? I can not forget his last words: "You are standing too close!" Same here.