Admiral (2008)

 

                “Admiral” is a Russian movie that tells of a love triangle reminiscent of “Dr. Zhivago”, but using historical figures in the backdrop of the Russian Civil War instead of the Russian Revolution.  It took 4 years to make, with a total of 210 shooting days.  The twelve-minute battle scene took a month.  The movie won Golden Eagles (similar to Golden Globes) for best actor (Konstantin Kharensky), cinematography, costumes, and sound.

                In 1916, Alexander Kolchak (Kharensky) is in the Baltic Sea commanding a Russian warship.  His ship comes under fire from a German battleship.  He lures it into a minefield.  We are treated to fake-looking CGI, but lots of action.  The explosions are vibrant and the wounds are graphic.  Kharensky proves to be as cool as a cucumber.  He meets Anna (Elizaveta Boyarskaya) who is married to his best friend Sergey Timirov (Vladislav Vetrov).  Hello, love triangle.  Kolchak is married with child and he is loyal to his wife, so his relationship with Anna does not go beyond flirting (which is noted by the spouses).  Meanwhile, Kolchak’s career is on the rise.  He is appointed a Vice Admiral by Czar Nicholas II and given command of the Black Sea fleet.  The Russian Revolution breaks out and Kolchak surrenders his command to his sailors.  When Kerensky offers Kolchak the leader of the pre-Bolshevik military, he refuses and is sent as a military attache to the Americans who are planning an attack on Constantinople.  He returns one year later to fight the Bolsheviks as a commander of White forces against the Reds of the Russian Civil War.  Sergey is a commissar with the Reds.  End of friendship, but not love triangle.  Alexander and Anna reunite and their chaste love affair is set against the backdrop of the war.

                “Admiral” is a good history lesson, but boring cinema.  When compared to “Doctor Zhivago”, it comes up short except in combat.  There is a decent naval battle and suicidal attack through no man’s land.  These can not overcome a tepid romance that is the core of the movie.  Neither Alexander nor Anna are appealing characters as each abandon spouses who don’t deserve it.  It doesn’t help that the central four are acted woodenly by the cast.  In the attempt to portray Kolchak as a selfless, loyal subject of the Czar, the movie does not allow Kharensky to chew scenery as the actual Kolchak.  He was a prickly, unsociable individual.  Hardly the romantic of the film.

                Russian war movies are divided between the Soviet WWII movies and the movies made after the fall of the Soviet Union.  The pre-collapse films are mostly black and white and many are classics.  These include “The Cranes Are Flying”, “Ballad of a Soldier”, and “Ivan’s Childhood”.  All of these were made after the thaw brought on by Khrushchev.  Ironically, this period of Soviet cinema revived the Civil War as a subject.  But these films lauded the efforts of the Reds.  The current style of Russian cinema can be traced back to the fall of communism.  Movies like “Admiral” use CGI and modern battle choreography to reach audiences who are more interested in dynamic story-telling as opposed to the more humanistic themes of the Soviet films.  “Admiral” could not have been made under Stalin.  Even after he was long gone, it still was controversial.  Kolchak was considered an anti-revolutionary when the communists ruled.  He fought against communism.  By 2008, it was possible to treat him as a cinematic hero.  The movie rehabilitates his reputation as it puts him back into Russian history, but this time as a hero.

                How is the movie as history?  Kolchak was in charge of mining in the Gulf of Riga.  He led from the front in risky night mine-laying operations.  In 1916, he was promoted to Vice Admiral and given command of the Black Sea fleet. His attacks on Turkish coal ships caused much hardship for the Ottomans.  When the February Revolution broke out, Kolchak relinquished command to his sailors.  He met with Alexander Kerensky, but his insistence on returning the military to traditional strict discipline was not the direction the new government had in mind.  Because Kolchak’s name was being mentioned as a possible dictator, Kerensky shipped him off to America to give advice on a possible campaign against the Ottoman Empire.  When the November Revolution broke out, Kolchak was sent to Siberia to run the government loyal to the Kerensky.  He became the de facto head of the Whites and initiated a crackdown on communists.  He attempted to restore property to large landowners.  He ordered villages to be burned and civilians to be killed.  It was reactionary policies like these that kept the Allies from supporting him wholeheartedly in the Civil War.  President Woodrow Wilson, in particular, found him no better than the Bolsheviks.  Because of his heavy-handed actions, a huge number of Siberians became partisans.  The movie accurately portrays Kolchak’s military efforts as being successful, at first.  This was despite him being a poor leader.  His movement forward extended his supply lines and exhausted his army. Red reinforcements allowed for a counteroffensive.  Once they gained the initiative, they never gave it up.  Kolchak’s forces retreated.  He did travel east on the Trans-Siberian railway.  He was deposed by the Whites and handed over to the Bolsheviks who executed him by firing squad.  His last words were to his wife and son.

                As far as Anna Timirov is concerned, the movie is pretty accurate.  She was married to Kolchak’s best friend and subordinate.  They did conduct an affair before Anna left Timirov in 1917 to join Kolchak and become his common law wife.  Anna divorced Timirov in 1918.  She was with Kolchak in Siberia, but as an interpreter in his government, not as a nurse.  She survived his execution, but her association with him got her in trouble with the communist government over the years.  She was arrested seven times and spent many years in various labor camps.  She was finally forgiven in the 1960’s.  She did have a role in “War and Peace”.

GRADE  =  C