Archangel (2005)

Archangel is named after the Archangel Michael the Angel of War

The city of Archangel was named by Peter the Great (who ordered its' construction) for the Angel who fights at Gd's right hand against Satan. It was to be Russia's naval base on the Arctic Sea, and was the home of the USSR's nuclear submarine fleet during the Cold War. All this has nothing to do with the movie!

The movie, which is written and filmed by Russians, is a commentary on the loss of power and prestige after the death of Stalin (apres moi le deluge). Except for Krushchev, all the leaders who followed Stalin were forced to live in his shadows. The man who killed over 30 million of his own countrymen is remembered fondly by those who survived because of what he accomplished. He took a totally rural country and turned it into a superpower in less than thirty years, during which he defeated on of the strongest armies that ever existed.

This story follows a group that wants to revive Stalinism in modern Russian by rallying the people behind a 'new' Stalin. Professor Kelso (David Craig as an expert on Russia) is duped into exposing the new dictator as the son of Stalin by an ingenious series of machinizations. But, is he really being duped?

Being filmed in Russia, we get to see the dark side of the country, the drunken brutality and the 'anything for a buck' economy. It's very interesting to see the parts of the cities that were built under communism and how they are deteriorating. Except for the ending (which is very Russian) most of the movie is very entertaining and plausible. July 6, 2008

The Angel Gene

Archangel is the name of a city in a northern province of the same name in Russia. Once the chief seaport of medieval Russia, its population has been decreasing; now at under 400,000. The city was taken by the Russians from the Norwegians during the 15th century. Sometime in the year 2005, close to the city, in the woods, lives the long forgotten son of Joseph Stalin.

Finding him, and possibly bringing this son of the "man of steel" to lead the Russian people raises interesting questions. Even questioning the existence of a "cruelty" gene.

This could possibly be Daniel Craig's best movie--even better than the James Bond movie.
January 28, 2008

Until the Final Gun Explodes

Jon Jones' second feature (after an obscure "When I'm 64") is a tense thriller. Jones does a good job with pacing and benefits from excellent cinematography. The screenplay is by the writing team Ian LaFrenais and Dick Clement who recently wrote Across the Universe (Two-Disc Special Edition) and have "Bank Job" with Jason Statham due for release. La Frenais won the British Academy Award for writing for "The Commitments" in 1992.

Daniel Craig portrays historian Fluke Kelso who is presented with a secret from Josef Stalin's past. The film unfolds like a lower budgeted Russian version of The Da Vinci Code (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) where a historian scrapes with the police to uncover an important secret. Daniel Craig was nominated for Best Actor by the British Academy Awards in 2006 for his portrayal of James Bond in Casino Royale (2-Disc Widescreen Edition) and has appeared this summer in "The Golden Compass" and in 2005 in Munich (Widescreen Edition). He does a good job as the historian teetering over the hill who could use one great story and another book to bolster his career. His work is impressive with a surprising emotional range in this plot-centered thriller.

Yekaterina Rednikova plays the Russian Zinaida. She does a good job as the hard-edged woman who works by day and is a lady of the evening by night. Gabriel Macht who was in "The Good Shepherd" and A Love Song for Bobby Long plays the tenacious reporter R.J. O'Brien who won't let go of the story. The Russian secret police captain Suvorin played by Alexey Diakov also turns in an excellent and controlled performance.

This film gripped me from the first frame and kept me on the edge of my seat until the final gun explodes. It seems like one needs a rudimentary appreciation of Soviet Russian history to fully appreciate what is being uncovered, not unlike "The DaVinci Code" in that regard. This is an interesting and tight drama well worth an evening's viewing. Enjoy! January 4, 2008

Stalin .... a mad man that the world has never seen before or since

Russian history enthusiasts will love this film. This movie made me wonder about the story of the USSR and the rise of Josef Stalin. Unlike other notorious world leaders, Stalin (the focus of this tale) was more ruthless and murderous than any of the other infamous dictators in history combined. A fearsome threat to his own people as well as the world, even the USA, Great Britan, France and the WW-II allies feared taking action against Stalin and instead fought with him against Hitler and Germany. Stalin died in 1953.

If you want to know more about Russia's most ruthless dictator, Josef Stalin, see this movie.

Arch Angel, is a superb mystery/thriller (based on the book) about a university history professor searching for answers to a very young female hired to work for Stalin during his reign. The story takes place in modern day Russia. The search for answers takes this professor and his party of three to a remote Russian city known as "Arch Angel".

The story is a riveting, action packed, nail biter. But the ending left much to be desired--from the DVD I saw there really was no ending. This is the only reason it gets 4 stars instead of 5. Much of the story, but not all, is written in English captions.

See this movie. It sparked my interest in Stalin and I read more about this dictator in Winipekia, which has some superior and unique online information.

Stalin was a horrifying man unlike any other. He made Saddam Hussien look like Santa Claus. August 5, 2007

A fine made-for-TV British thriller starring Daniel Craig, based on the even finer novel by Robert Harris

If movie thrillers can be thoughtful, literate and exciting -- and with no computer-created mega-explosions -- this fine British TV adaptation of the Robert Harris novel does the job. Archangel stars Daniel Craig and was made before Craig hit the big time as James Bond. Without the Bond fervor, this little-known film might never have been released on DVD. It tells the story of British professor Fluke Kelso (Craig), a middle-aged man who had made a name for himself with impeccable research on Soviet history, concentrating on the life and career of Josef Stalin. Two flashy, best-selling books made him a star in academia. But for the last three years, Kelso has been drifting through a burned-out life of dissatisfaction. That will change dramatically when, at a Moscow symposium attended by other historians, he is approached by a coarse old man, Papu Rapava, with a story of the last hours of Stalin. Rapava had been a guard for Lavrenti Beria when Georgy Malenkov calls Beria and pleads with him to come immediately to Blizhny, the name for Stalin's dacha outside Moscow. Stalin is dying of a massive stroke. Beria, shrewd and ruthless, takes the little key Stalin always carried. With the key and with Rapava driving, Beria races to the Kremlin and finds a small metal box locked away in Stalin's office. And in the box are some papers which Beria buries late that night in the yard of his Moscow fortified home, with Rapava digging the hole. When Beria was arrested and executed, Rapava was tortured to tell about the box. He said he knew nothing, guessing he'd be executed, too, if the new masters of the Kremlin suspected anything. He spent years in a gulag, but he lived. Well, that's the story Papu Rapava told Kelso.

In the next four days Kelso finds the box has been dug up and is missing. He'll meet Zinaida (Yekaterina Rednikova), a sullen Russian call girl who turns out to be Rapava's estranged daughter. He'll talk with Mamantov, a clever and unrepentant ex-Soviet senior official who now is running for office in the new Russia. He'll encounter O'Brian (Gabriel Macht), a big, friendly American television reporter who seems to know almost as much as Kelso. And he'll find the bloody, naked body of Rapava, tortured and left for dead in the grimy bathtub of an abandoned apartment.

Kelso is not sure what to believe. He's attacked by two thugs. Papu Rapava's daughter suddenly decides to help find the box. Major Suvorin of the FSB picks him up and tells him to be on the next flight out of Moscow. All the while Kelso knows that if he can find the box, read those long-ago documents and publish what he reads, he and his career will flash right back to the top again. When Kelso and Zinaida finally locate the box and read the papers, they find themselves reading the stained and mouldering diary of a girl thrilled to leave her home in Archangel to go to Moscow and serve the great father, Stalin. They find her medical records and reports from the NKVD on her family. They realize she bore a child, a boy, after she was sent back to Archangel, and that she died days after giving birth. The boy was adopted. Kelso and Zinaida leave for Archangel just before the winter snows arrive. And in the deep, frigid forests north of Archangel, Kelso, with O'Brian tagging along, encounters man-traps, a silent, abandoned collection of wooden huts...with smoke drifting from one of them. So now bring on the paranoia, ruthlessness, an attack by the Spetsnaz, death and a desperate escape. Bring on what the new Russia might revert to.

Archangel is a thoughtful thriller, but with enough excitement and momentum to keep things moving. It follows the book closely. The DVD looks very good. As an extra it includes the bios of Craig and Macht. Unfortunately, the book's fascinating re-creation of the Stalin gang has had to be reduced. Beria, Malenkov, Bulganin, Khrushchev, Molotov...after a few vodkas, Stalin would make them dance. Nearly all of the cast is Russian, with the movie filmed entirely in Moscow and Riga, Latvia. The movie looks overcast and cold, with frigid, drizzling weather. What makes Archangel work so well are the "what if" speculations by Robert Harris and Daniel Craig's fine performance. Craig has a rough face, not quite handsome. He can dominate a scene. He's also a mature actor with experience and versatility. Compare the job he does in Love Is the Devil as the slow-witted gay lover of Francis Bacon with the hetro-active, action-minded James Bond. I hope the James Bond franchise doesn't turn Craig into just another star-enhanced pretty face.

For those who like to read, give the novels by Robert Harris a chance. Two of his finest include Fatherland and Enigma. In my opinion, the movie Enigma, with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard, is a fine, clever and thoughtful thriller. And for those who enjoy Archangel, both the book and the movie, try Robin White's novel, Siberian Light. It's another first-class, frigid thriller set in the frozen lands of Siberia, with an interesting, thinking hero.

Archangel
Enigma
Enigma (Special Edition)
Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
Siberian Light July 3, 2007

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