The Death of Stalin

Steyn On-line ^ | April 13, 2019 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

I was asked a while back (I think on a Clubland Q&A) if I'd seen The Death of Stalin. And I replied that I'd caught it on a transatlantic flight, mainly because I couldn't face another superhero caper or witless "comedy" or animated feature of anthropomorphized cartoon animals virtue-signaling. It turned out to be by Armando Iannucci, an old comrade from the turn-of-the-century Daily Telegraph op-ed page and before that the producer of various BBC Light Ent shows I was a fitful participant on. Armando went on to create "The Thick of It", a sort of foul-mouthed "Yes, Minister!" eviscerating Blairite Britain as only a disillusioned Blairite could, which formula he eventually replicated in America as "Veep". I, on the other hand, went on to CRTV, so one defers with great respect to his judgment over mine - and to his wit: I'm not a great "Veep" watcher, but I gather that since his departure it appears to have degenerated into one of those shows in which Hollywood anatomizes the awfulness of Washington only to flatter and glamorize it.

Anyway, ever since that first mention of my in-flight viewing, I keep getting asked by listeners and readers what I actually made of The Death of Stalin, so I thought I'd have my tuppence-ha'porth. Iannucci directed and co-wrote, with Ian Martin, Peter Fellows and David Schneider, and the film appears to have come and gone leaving nary a trace - it opened in 2017, but I confess I'd never heard of it until that 2018 flight.

[minnesota_bound]

Stalin tactics are not dead, they are known under many other names.

[Nateman]

It’s with Showtime.

[Nateman]

I simply checked it out from a library. Great movie. Stalin laughs at the note accusing him of being evil and hoping that God kills him. That is when is gets the stroke. Lots of purges and innocent peons getting killed in the movie. Putin banned it in Russia so you know it had to be good.

[safeasthebanks]

Excellent movie and well acted. Especially the guy that played Beria. What a monster he was.

[Bonemaker]

Ha ha, I wonder when they will make “Stalin...the Musical”. Ha ha.

[sphinx]

Excellent movie. Like several others, I found it accidentally and have wondered how & why the release of such a good film received so little attention. Did the big distributors not want it? Perhaps they thought it was too “intellectual” for the modern movie audience, half of whom don’t know who Stalin was, with the democrat half of the remainder thinking Stalin was the good guy.

[Peter ODonnell]

It’s a five stasi film.

[Rockingham]

The script relied on the work of the late Robert Conquest and other well-regarded scholars of the USSR. The atmosphere of antic, fearful obedience and constant plotting around Stalin is accurate.

[Fiji Hill]

Opposing viewpoints:

• Stalin, Friend and Comrade--Ernst Busch (1951)

• Stalin Kicked the Bucket--Ray Anderson (1953)

[Celtic Conservative]

I did some reading as well, and the vast majority was true. There were some typical Hollywood plot devices like time dilation (in real life it took them about 6 months to get around to killing Beria), but the majority of it was quite factual.

CC

[NorseViking]

You are right and the casting was great. With the exception of Molotov everyone got their character just right. Zhukov, Stalin’s son and Beria are like real. Buscemi did great as Khruschev and Stalin himself were really good.

[nd76]

I studied Soviet and Eastern European governments when I was attending at the time an anti-Communist university (my, things have changed in 40 years).

I thought “The Death of Stalin” was great and highly recommend it to anyone who is curious about how cult of personality totalitarian systems, such as communism, really work. While it wasn’t entirely historically accurate (Beria met his end about nine months after Stalin’s death, not immediately after the funeral as depicted in the movie), it was close enough.

BTW, the body count in this movie is far greater than any Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson movie.

[Chickensoup]

I see what you did there.

dark, funny.

[Mmmike]

“So, comrades, in Lenin’s immortal words, ‘What is to be done?’”

[xp38]

Films on the topic of communism are rare in comparison to the Nazis in the west. Generally they come and go like this one. I haven’t seen it but imagine I will at some point. I have seen one called the Inner Circle which is about Stalin’s film projectionist and if you liked this one you probably will like it as well. Another commie topic film that most Freepers who have seen it have highly praised is Other People’s Lives.

[Skooz]

Outstanding film. Funny and smart.

[sima_yi]

"The Death of Stalin" is being very funny movie. I am giving it four stars and one half.

[Jmouse007]

Incredible film, should be on everyone’s “must watch” list.

Although the scope of events were compressed for time, the overwhelming majority of what is presented on film actually took place. And while comedic, it is truly terrifying because it accurately presents what it was and is like to live under communism... just ask the North Koreans.

While the bkack humor is very funny, The Death of Stalin is an extremely valuable history lesson for everyone fooolishly longing for “socialism”, and the “good old”, bad old days of Soviet, Stalinist Russia.