Director: Michael Apted
Year: 1983
Rating: 7.5
I just finished reading the book from Martin Cruz
Smith which as much as I enjoyed it felt as if it went on forever like the
Russian steppes. It seemed Smith just never wanted the book to end. Which
is perhaps not surprising in that until then he was basically a pulp writer
with six novels about a character called The Inquisitor who was apparently
in the James Bond mold. I have never come across one. His publisher asked
him to write a story about an American detective who goes to Moscow but when
Smith went to Russia he instead decided to write a book about a Russian official
investigator and he poured his heart and words into it. The publisher would
not publish it and it sat in a gulag for a few years until Smith was able
to buy it back and have another company publish it and it became a best seller.
So much for publishers. Still Smith did not write the next in the series
for eight more years until 1989 and he just finished his ninth in the series.
I have to admit I am curious to read the next since at the end of the first
book it seems unlikely that Chief Investigator Arkady Renko will be welcomed
back into the police ranks but I guess he must be if there are another eight
books!
Director Michael Apted (or script writer Dennis Potter) makes some good decisions
in what he cuts out because cutting is needed. Renko's failing relationship
with his wife is gone - if only we could all look back and do the same -
and the two final sections of the book - one in which he is a prisoner of
the State and close to being executed and his stay in NYC is boiled down
to about ten minutes and Stockholm replaces NYC. All very reasonable, but
Smith really had no choice but to also mute almost entirely the politics,
the internal intrigue, the Russian-ness of the book, Arkady's reluctance
to be a part of the machine - that would have slowed the film down too much
but is in a sense the heart of the book. Arkady navigating the corrupt system
while staying honest to himself is fascinating .
Arkady is played by a young sleek looking William Hurt (he was on a roll
with Eyewitness, Body Heat and The Big Chill behind him) and for reasons
unknown affects a mysterious accent that is part British, part God Knows
What that makes no sense. If you are going to acquire an accent for the role,
why not a Russian accent or just American. It was like an acting exercise.
But otherwise Hurt is great - very unemotional and impassive yet always carrying
a slightly superior air with him like a winter coat giving everyone the smug
I know you are lying look. He is assigned to a case where three bodies are
found in Gorky Park having been covered by the snow for weeks and with their
faces skinned off. To some degree it becomes a police procedural but with
the KGB looking on it clearly has other implications. Arkady wants to give
the case to the KGB but his superior (Ian Bannen) pushes Arkady to keep it.
This leads to a New York cop (Brian Dennehy) who is looking for his brother,
a girl (Joanna Pacula who is in her first lead role after refusing to go
back to Poland after martial law was declared and who was involved with Roman
Polansky at the time) who knows much more than she is willing to say and
an American businessman (Lee Marvin) who is somehow involved. Every body
is good in their roles - it always a pleasure seeing veterans like Dennehy
and Marvin at work - they make it look so easy. Plot wise the film very closely
follows the book other than in what I have mentioned - and I have to admit
this lessened the tension for me because I know where it is all leading and
it goes exactly there. It was actually shot in Helsinki.
