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Gorky Park (1983)

Director:
Michael Apted
COUNTRY
France
GENRE
Crime/Drama/
Thriller/Romance
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Mordene i Gorkiparken
RUNNING TIME
128 minutes
Producer:
Gene Kirkwood
Howard W. Koch Jr.
Screenwriter (based on the novel by Martin Cruz Smith):
Dennis Potter


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Arkady Renko William Hurt ½
Jack Osborne Lee Marvin ½
William Kirwill Brian Dennehy
Iamskoy Ian Bannen ½
Irina Asanova Joanna Pacula ½
Pasha Michael Elphick
Anton Richard Griffiths
Maj. Pribluda Rikki Fulton
Prof. Andreev Ian McDiarmid

 

Review

William Hurt's elegant, arrogant and delicately aloof Arkady Renko is the hub in this investigation mystery portraying the corruption, trustlessness and coldness in a closed cold war Soviet Union. Despite some seemingly biased opinions concerning the Soviet way of life, the film actually holds up well as a just document of the cold war, showing the downside from both perspectives and maintaining faith in a socialist society despite delivering it some heavy blows. It should be kept in mind that to shoot a film like Gorky Park from a Soviet perspective in 1983, allegedly from the inside of the USSR, and with a Soviet hero and an American villain, was a rather controversial move. Helsinki worked as a stand-in for Moscow and British English a stand-in for Russian, but the filmmakers still managed to create a highly believable and sober film. Gorky Park is atmospheric, tightly knit and portrays a cold and uncommercial society in an attractive and sexy manner.

Copyright © 10.1.2009 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

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