Film Review

FILM REVIEW

  

THE ASSASSIN OF THE TSAR,  Mosfilm, 1991

 

Directed by Karen Shakhanazarov,

Starring Oleg Yankovsky as Nicholas 2nd and Dr Smirnov,

Malcolm McDowell as Yakov Yurovsky and Timofeyev,

Armen Dzhgark as Dr Yegorovitch,

 

            The German philosopher Nietzsche once declared that 'If you look long enough into the abyss, then the abyss will eventually stare back at you'. Perhaps saying might help viewers understand some of the main themes of this film which

are based on the dramatization of  events surrounding the murder of the family of Nicholas the 2nd and his whole family on the 16 -17 July 1918. The film attempts to make sense of those events through two of the main characters: a patient suffering from chronic schizophrenia, Timofeyev, played by British actor Malcolm McDowell, and his psychiatrist, Dr Smirnov , played by Oleg Yankovsky.

            Both men are obsessed by those events and attempt to imagine  what  actually happened and why. But as they look too far into this abyss they begin to be afflicted with the actual illnesses suffered by the main characters. For instance, Timofeyev, who believes he is the assassin of both Alexander 2nd and Nicholas the 2nd, just like Yurovsky, the man who shot the Tsar, that he is suffering from a perforated ulcer, reels in agony through the night, and Dr Smirnov, who thinks a lot about Nicholas the 2nd has his temple temporarily scarred just as Nicholas the 2nd was scarred by a Japanese policeman when he urinated in a Japanese temple during a world tour in 1891. This film is a kind of deep mystical film. It is quite a thoughtful and reflective film which is told in an original way. This film is set in a psychiatric hospital in Yekaterinburg where the events are told through the eyes of a psychiatric patient Timofeyev.

 

            The film opens with a brief quote from the Book of Daniel where King Belshazzar who hosted a blasphemous feast is warned by God that his days and kingdom are

numbered when the hand of God writes a warning on the wall. Daniel is called to interpret this message and on the same night the king is slain. What the connection is between the fall of this ancient kingdom and the tsar is open to question!

 

            Later, Timofeyev, a patient in a psychiatric hospital is telling two psychiatrists how he believes he has murdered two tsars. We see a scene where Alexander the 2nd is murdered by terrorists in Saint Petersburg in 1881. The doctors ask Timofeyev, "When did you first begin thinking those thoughts that you had killed the tsars? He states, "Well, after military service I stayed in Yakuta and worked as a logger. I got pretty drunk everyday . One day I was pretty out of it and my feet were frozen solid. My toes had to be amputated. I don't have toes in either foot. During the time of the operation Eva turned up. She was about five, wore a red dress and yellow shoes and she told me, 'You are not Timofeyev, but someone who killed two tsars."

            Since then Timofeyev has for 18 years been shuttled around 18 different psychiatric hospitals. The senior doctor would like to discharge Timofeyev, but this is not so straightforward. Firstly, he has no family to look after him and his only sister has, "Turned her back on me." He also tends to drink too much and might be worst off. But when Timofeyev states, "After I am discharged from this hospital I'm going to meet Stalin in person". After this outbreak, it is difficult to imagine Timofeyev being imminently released.

 

            Doctor Smirnov believes he can cure Timofeyev's illness by posing as Nicholas the 2nd in a way which will undermine and hence dispel his delusions. Unfortunately, this

noble attempt leads to unanticipated consequences when the doctor really begins to believe he is Nicholas the 2nd and even tells his colleague, "I want to find out why Yurovsky killed me".

 

            Throughout the film we witness the family of Nicholas the 2nd being taken to the notorious Ipatev's house or 'House of Special Designation' in April 1918. The tsar comes across as a very pedantic and petty person who is always absorbed in small details rather than the whole picture. As in real life, his manners are impeccable and he comes across as a very ordinary family man. This is captured in the scene where he reads out a newspaper on how many animals have been counted in the census of a town, adverts of a lady from England promising English lessons and what is on at the local theater. His 13 year old son is later seen playing toy soldiers

on his bed while his wife starts to break down. In one interesting scene Timofeyev tells Smirnov posing as Nicholas the 2nd that, "You were different from how I imagined you. Nothing in you could provoke or anger me ... How could this

ordinariness be reconciled with the guillotine or scaffold? It was a fraud."

 

            If the Tsar seems too ordinary then so does his assassin. Yurovsky is seen riding up and down on a bicycle and misses organised meetings with the Cheka. Although

he is a member of the Cheka he still has to run a business as a photographer.

            In one scene Nicholas the 2nd states "Like my grandfather I realized I too would be assassinated only my death would be 100,000 times worse. My father who was

blind drunk came to me and told me, "Well, now you are next in line to the throne".

            Nicolas replies, "I don't want to be next in line for the thrown ... He didn't hear me as he collapsed into deep sleep. I didn't want to be hated and hunted down like a wild animal as my grandfather and father were.  I didn't want my son to be lonely as I was, all my life. I didn't want that at all." And the film faithfully reflects the true sentiments of Nicholas the 2nd. He would have preferred a quiet ordinary life.

            He states that he has to kill enemies because the empire demanded it.

 

            The film also explores what may or may not have been the motives of Yurovsky.

            When asked "Why he killed the tsar?" He states, "I felt I had to do it. I wanted to stop being a mediocrity and instead, somebody ... You had to be killed because you annoyed everybody. You annoyed the monarchists, the socialists and the anarchists. You were more useful dead than alive."

 

            The actual grim events of the execution of the Tsarist family are not shown in great detail. Yes, we see Yurovsky ordering them to go to a basement under the false pretext that anarchists are coming closer and attacking the building. They are led to a room, two chairs have to be brought in and all we hear is firing and see Nicolas the 2nd shot and his son. But the real events were worse. It was a totally botched execution because Yurovsky had ordered his men to aim for the hearts. But since the daughters were concealing jewels in their corsets bullets bounced off. They tried to bayonet them, but this did not work and they ended up shooting their heads.

            They even failed to secretly take away, conceal and completely burn the bodies.

            When the executioners returned to the town they got drunk and boasted to everyone what they had done. Because of this, Yurovsky was forced to return to try and rebury the bodies.

 

            Yurovsky does not become somebody, but remains a mediocrity. In one scene we see, he meets Lenin and expects him to congratulate him for working with him to execute the tsar. He is disappointed to find that Lenin mentions not a word about the deed. In reality, the Bolsheviks told the public that only Nicholas the 2nd had been executed and that the rest of the family had been left alive. They were worried about how the Russian public would react to hearing the news they had murdered a 13 year boy and very young girls on the threshold of adulthood. This is why so many legends about the survival of some daughters emerged and impostors claimed to be Anastasia. Countless plays and films were made about this legend despite archives confirming the whole family were executed.

 

            What comes across is the intense loneliness of the both Yurovksy and the Tsar. The only slight misgiving I have about this film is how mental illness is presented.

            The film portrays the loneliness and abandonment of many patients at hospitals who don't have many friends or family relations. We never see Timofeyev talking to other  

patients. He is seems so remote from the other patients. But the view that, "Why do we imagine that people with chronic schizophrenics are less happy than ordinary people? Do ordinary people have an imagination which would allow them to imagine they are an assassin or tsar? " Well, anyone who has worked or had a lot of contact with such patients would highly doubt such a statement. The patients I encountered tend to be much more unhappy than ordinary people. Many of those delusions and hallucinations are frightening. This reflects a loss of freedom rather than some creative act. I met a Russian patient who was under the delusion that he was an Englishman. He turned out to be one of the most unhappiest persons I have ever met in my life.

 

            Despite this small reservation I think the script, dialogue and acting are superb. It is quite an original idea to set those historical events in a psychiatric hospital.

            The film portrays Yurovsky as a later tortured person who seems to feel guilt about the murders and the fate of what happened to an 8-year-old girl who went missing at a church on the day of the execution. Yurovsky even asks one of his men whether he has killed the girl 'by mistake'.  Of course, the British Actor Malcolm McDowell is often typecast as a wiry, irrational or lonely misfit. Nevertheless he offers a convincing performance as a lonely patient in a hospital who doesn't feel completely at home there.

 

            The tense anxiously haunting atmosphere surrounding the events of the revolution and civil war is well shot. This film is well worth a look and can be seen in either English or Russian on You Tube. If you like deep psychological, mystical and historical films this is the one for you.