TONITE’S BEST BET: Hello, Sailor Адмиралъ/The Admiral (Historical drama. Russia, 2008)(Dom Kino, 20:30) --> After 70 years in the archival brig under the assiduous guard of state-approved Soviet historians, Adm. A. V. Kolchak’s reputation was released by 1991 to resume its rightful place in Russian history. The process has been unfolding in stages for 20-odd yrs now, and this big-budget Andrei Kravchuk effort (for Dago Productions/Fox) offers a significant nudge in the right direction. “The Admiral” is not a didactic setting-straight of the political record or a(nother) finding-Kolchak’s-gold adventure either; it is an engaging, personal-life-to-the-main deck biopic/adventure that uses the modest dramatic talents of Konstantin Khabensky to surprisingly good advantage in the lead and the luminous Elizaveta Boyarskaya (recall the nurse in “Парк советского периода”) judiciously in the key role of Mrs. Admiral. TV viewers, btw, get to see a slightly different -- and perhaps slightly better -- version of the AK epic, as a number of scenes that “add to the characters psychological substance and motivation” have been added (well, re-inserted) for the small-screen edition. In any case, “The Admiral” did big box office here in the original, which was encouraging on a number of levels. It’s not the “Gone With the Wind” for the White movement that some peeps are still waiting for, but it makes a v. good case for Kolchak as a kind of Robt. E. Lee 2.0, an honorable explorer-scholar-war hero-statesman who deserved a fate far better than the one his country meted out to him. Tune in (or watch online below) and check the Admiral out – before somebody tries to rewrite him back into undeserved oblivion. youtube/watch?v=bUiuIYeSB6s
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 06:41:29 +0000
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