Red Army - Legends on the Ice
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Red Army - Legends on the Ice |
| Original title | Red Army |
| Country of production | United States , Russia |
| original language | English , Russian |
| Publishing year | 2014 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Gabe Polsky |
| script | Gabe Polsky |
| production | Gabe Polsky |
| music |
Christophe Beck , Leo Birenberg |
| camera |
Svetlana Cvetko , Peter Zeitlinger |
| cut |
Eli B. Despres , Kurt Engfehr |
| occupation | |
Red Army - Legends on the Ice (Original title: Red Army ) is a documentary by Gabe Polsky from 2014. As executive producers , u. a. Jerry Weintraub and Werner Herzog worked. The film premiered at the 2014 Cannes International Film Festival and was released by Sony Pictures Classics in a limited number of theaters on January 23, 2015. The cinema release in Germany was on January 29, 2015.
content
The film shows how the ice hockey players of the Soviet Union were drilled during the Cold War from the 1950s to the dissolution in 1990 and dominated the ice hockey sport , even though more money was flowing in the US NHL even then. The Soviet national team at that time consisted almost exclusively of young, loyal players of the CSKA , the club of the Red Army (English Red Army ).
The aim of the rigorous training was to present socialism in the form of a functioning sports collective. In contrast to the American star system, for example, they rely on the team as such, with no particular focus on the individual players. However, the propaganda only worked if the western competitors could be defeated.
In addition, talented players had to be prevented from switching to the class enemy, which the Soviet rulers knew how to prevent. The story is told from the perspective of Moscow's captain Slava Fetisov , who advanced from a national hero to a political enemy. The team's rabid coach, Viktor Tikhonov , for whom none of the players has a good word for it, is also portrayed .
publication
Red Army premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in US theaters by Sony Pictures Classics. The film was also shown at the Cannes International Film Festival .
In Telluride , Red Army was the only documentary in official competition in 2014, as well as in Toronto, New York and at the AFI Film Festival. The film was selected as the opening film at the Moscow International Film Festival .
reception
Red Army is one of the top rated films of 2014 with a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 91 reviews. The critical consensus states: “ Red Army is a gripping documentary drama for ice hockey fans and newcomers alike.” Metacritic gave the film a rating of 82/100 with a total of 32 reviews.
AO Scott of The New York Times called the film "a poignant, insane story — a Russian novel with Tolstoic depth and Gogl-esque absurdity." The Time Magazine wrote "this playful, melancholy film presents a human story, the decades, borders and ideologies overcomes". Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter said the film was "one of the best documentaries" he has ever seen.
The film service judges that the film is a “masterful attempt to reconstruct the history of the USSR between 1979 and 2002 using the biographies of individual Soviet ice hockey players”. Thereby “a long interview with the defense attorney Slava Fetissow [...] exquisitely selected archive material” is grouped that “tells of the politicization of sport on both sides of the Iron Curtain”. The film is "an informative and entertaining sports documentary that also traces the grim seriousness of the Cold War with bizarre details and anecdotes."
Red Army won audience awards at the 2014 AFI film festivals in Chicago and Middleburg.
The ice hockey magazine Haimspiel.de evaluates the film on different levels and especially from a point of view of the sport. Reference is made to the biting humor of "the players' jokes about coach Tikhonov, who exercised his office with absolute power", which helped the players to get through up to four training units per day. At the same time, the magazine points out that the topic of "doping" is noticeably hushed up. The "decision of the Politburo to make ice hockey a popular sport and then to enforce success with all financial and structural measures" continues to have an effect today. The role of ice hockey players, who experience the (humiliating) "powerlessness (...) in the context of perestroika, in view of the collapse of the Soviet empire and the bleeding of Russia in the course of the 1990s", is discussed using the example of Alexander Ovechkin.
Web links
- Red Army - legends on the ice in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Red Army - legends on the ice at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Red Army - legends on the ice at Metacritic (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release Certificate for Red Army - Legends on the Ice . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2014 (PDF; test number: 149 190 K).
- ↑ Red Army. In: festival-cannes.fr. Cannes International Film Festival , accessed February 2, 2016 .
- ↑ Red Army. In: sonyclassics.com. Sony Pictures Classics , accessed February 2, 2016 .
- ↑ Release Info. Internet Movie Database , accessed January 14, 2016 .
- ↑ Cannes 2014 review: Red Army - the cold war, on ice . The Guardian . May 16, 2014. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
- ^ Red Army documentary a compelling and riveting film . September 2, 2014. Archived from the original on September 5, 2014. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
- ↑ Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Russian Hockey Doc 'Red Army' . Variety . April 22, 2014. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
- ↑ Spotted at Cannes: Ice to Go With Steam . In: The New York Times , May 18, 2014. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
- ^ Telluride Film Festival . Archived from the original on September 5, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
- ^ Toronto International Film Festival . Archived from the original on December 4th, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
- ^ New York Film Festival .
- ↑ AFI festival . Archived from the original on November 7, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
- ^ Moscow International Film Festival .
- ↑ Red Army (2014) (2015). Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on January 14, 2016 (English): "Fun and fascinating, Red Army delivers absorbing documentary drama for hockey fans and sports novices alike."
- ↑ Red Army . In: Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved July 14, 2015.
- ^ AO Scott: 'Red Army,' the Rise and Fall of a Soviet Hockey Dynasty . In: The New York Times , November 14, 2014, p. C13. : "Stirring, crazy story — a Russian novel of Tolstoyan sweep and Gogl-esque absurdity"
- ↑ Time Magazine .: "This playful, poignant film presents a human story that transcends decades, borders and ideologies"
- ↑ The Hollywood Reporter .
- ↑ Red Army - Legends on the Ice. Filmdienst , accessed on January 14, 2016 (short review).
- ↑ AFI festival . Archived from the original on November 5, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
- ^ Chicago International Film Festival .
- ^ Middleburg Film Festival .
- ^ René Guzmán: Film review: Red Army. In: Haimspiel.de - www.haimspiel.de. Haimspiel.de, January 25, 2015, accessed on January 23, 2019 .
