Gulag (1985)

Enjoyable made-for-TV-movie, loosely based on Alexander Dolgun's autobiography "Dolgun", in which he describes how he ended up in Soviet Gulag, and how he survived. Once you have read this book, the movie makes sense. Of course, the movie makes several detractments from the book, but it's not a movie that cites that it is based on that book, but it is a looses rendition of the story in the book, to an extent.As a Norwegian living in Oslo, it's great fun to see the settings for the various "Moscow" scenes: About 10' out in the movie, they're walking thru the Vigeland Sculpture park in Oslo. Next they're walking down Karl Johan Street, the National Theatre visible in the background. A visit to Oslo's City Hall is also part of the "Moscow" scenes, the "russian" guide pointing out the murals by Henrik Sørensen (from 1950). Later, the main character is walking thru the Botanical Gardens, only to be captured just outside in an everyday Oslo street (two schools visible in the background, Vahl & Hersleb). He is then taken to Lubjanka Prisonm to be interrogated. In this case, the old Main Post Office in Oslo. A tram, dirtied down & with Cyrillic characters on it's destination blind, passes by. A famous (in Norway) Norwegian actor, Bjørn Sundquist, has a small role as one of the Russian captors. At about 28 minutes out, he is taken to the train to transport him to the prison camp. The station is the old Oslo Østbane station (Still standing, but converted to shopping mall). The train is composed of typical Norwegian railway cars of the era (early 80's/late 70's.), but the car they're in is converted to a Stolypin car (of sorts). The train is pulled by a class Di.3 diesel engine. At about 0.32 the train arrives in Trondheim.Not a very high budget movie, but fun in in its own dated way, and with Malcolm Mc Dowell as The Englishman being, well, English. Worth watching, add some beers and some popcorn.

Did you notice that the guards, or some of them, were paratroopers? They had the sky blue shoulder boards and berets. That's not right. People in the Gulag, or whatever it's called now, would be guarded by the Ministry of the Interior troops. They are called Vnutrennie Voiska, or Interior Army. Their shoulder boards are a dark red. They also don't wear berets. Paratroopers, in that time, would probably all have been in Afghanistan. For me, otherwise, this was enjoyable, in that I was a teenager during the 1980s Cold War, and as with any teenager, I wanted to kick butt. Plus, I've always liked Malcolm McDowell, and I liked him in this.

Those who say that this film is a cliche are not facing reality. I remember when some people were calling terrorists a silly cliche until 2 flew into the trade towers. Tyrants do and have always existed which may be a bit much for some sheltered mall crazy Americans to accept.In fact there has been much about Soviet activities that has remained not really revealed and most films about it have vanished. Even Second World War involvement by the Soviets both positive and negative is rarely mentioned. This film shows an interesting view of the rarely mentioned soviet system of prisons called Gulags in which millions had vanished with almost no photos or films of.

Having watched the very first scene (where Russians were singing "Kalinka" and dancing at the bar), I felt sick. I immediately thought, "Oh, one more idiotic film by ignorant ones who know nothing about Russia but any stupid cliches". Some scenes are indeed idiotic. Honestly, I laughed at them alot (for example, the episode where the main character, Mike, was taken to the jail full of water). However, there are some of quite good episodes. In fact, many scenes in a camp ( in 80s those camps weren't called Gulag, btw. Gulag existed in Stalinistic period before early 50s) are reliable.I guess, this film was made with very clear intention. Typical anti-Soviet propaganda. If you want to get knowledges about Russia (or Soviet Union of that time), don't see this film. There are many stupidities in this film.The best thing about this film is that all the actors played guards were Russians as they have spoken Russian without terrible accent. Very rare (and pleasant) thing. As for the characters, the only attractive one was Jewish professor Matvei (David Suchet). He was played with great power.This characters imbodies this horror and sadness of being prisoner. The only character I will be keeping in mind for a long time after watching this film.