by Jim Wigge
Josef Stalin was one of the more underrated mass murderers of the 20th century. Hitler, of course, deserved his own special place in hell. There was Mao Tse Tung, Idi Amin and Syria’s Assad all of whom who murdered indiscriminately. But, for pure decimation of his own countrymen, Stalin was up there, right near the top.
Stalin saw threats everywhere: in classrooms, in physicians’ operating theatres, in research and development facilities and under his bed. Most of all, he saw threat in the military officer corps. Under the pretext that talented people were not philosophically pure, he had them shot. And, Stalin used a lot of bullets quite indiscriminately.
Of course, Stalin needed help — he couldn’t kill 26 million countrymen and women all by himself. The Nazi incursion helped a lot. Plus, he delegated random round-ups and village destruction to his security forces led by a gentleman by name of Beria. Beria had his own private army with its own stash of bullets. Beria was paranoid, too. When his top guys got uppity, he had them shot as well.
There was a lot of shooting and killing going on in the USSR even before the Germans invaded in 1941.
Historically, Stalin was all about treachery and mass murder. “The Death of Stalin” is not about the tragedy that was Stalin nor his like-minded cohorts. This movie is in the spirit of “Ninotchka” where otherwise ruthless Russian agents of the 1930s are satirized as toothless and corruptible.
In 1953, having lost 26 million countrymen in purges, forced starvation and war; having stolen the bomb from the U.S.; and having taken over virtually all of Eastern Europe, Stalin (Rupert Friend) grew tired and died.
Surrounding Stalin in life was the Secretariat (his advisory committee, not the horse.) The Secretariat comprised heads of all different factions of life in the USSR: Malenkov (Jeffrey Tabor) was Stalin’s deputy; Beria (Simon Russell Beale) was the very scary head of security; Kruschev (Steve Buscemi) was the head of transportation; Zhukov (Jason Isaacs) was the Soviet war hero and head of the army; and Molotov (Michael Palin) was head of international affairs … to name a few of the more prominent heads of state.
In the context of a dead tyrant and a huge nation in mourning, the film lampoons the stooges that are left behind “Papa Joe.” When alive and still directing traffic, Stalin gave these men structure; in his death they become the gang that can’t shoot straight. All hell breaks loose in their individual pursuit of power.
The story focuses a three-to-four day period that covers the presentation of Stalin laying in state. There was black humor at the movie’s beginning. That mood gave way to a hilariously profane study in greed, ambition and chaos between the remaining members of the Secretariat. It has the appearance almost of eight contributors to a French farce, all coming and going room-to-room, all yelling at once about who or what will be doing when.
Malenkov, as Stalin’s deputy, takes over interim leadership until the Secretariat can decide a permanent successor. But Tambor’s Malenkov is a weak, befuddled, “yes” man to his more powerful colleagues. Neither organization nor collaboration are that group’s strong suits. All tremble for need to control; none of them has a cogent idea for tomorrow much less a five-year plan.
It’s all about governance between murderers, family and confused bureaucrats in the absence of a tyrant who singly handled all of that. It’s crazy, wild and funny where respect for a fallen hero and the driving philosophy of national communism and comradery is the least of anyone’s concern. The movie begins strong and continues stronger.
Sets are simple; it is not a “large” movie. Film strengths are its acting and script, abetted by continuous improvisation from well-trained actors. It is directed by Armando Ianucci, noted for his work on “Veep.” Ianucci’s greatest contribution here is to just let these actors work and do their thing with hilarious results.
“Death of Stalin” is playing at the Manlius Art Cinema. This is a hoot of a movie. I highly recommend it for adults, but not for kids for all of the rough language.
