![]() |
William Hurt investigates murder in Soviet Russia in ace adaptation Gorky Park |
Director: Michael Apted
Cast: William Hurt (Arkady Renko), Lee Marvin (Jack
Osborne), Brian Dennehy (William Kirwill), Ian Bannen (Prosecutor Iamskoy),
Joanna Pacula (Irina Asanova), Michael Elphick (Pasha), Richard Griffiths
(Anton), Rikki Fulton (Major Pabluda), Alexander Knox (The General), Alexei
Sayle (Golodkin), Ian McDiarmid (Professor Andreev), Niall O’Brien (KGB Agent
Rurik)
Martin Cruz Smith’s novel Gorky Park was a bestseller in the early 1980s. It looked at grim
goings-on behind the Iron Curtain, a trio of grisly murders in Moscow’s Gorky
Park (the bodies are faceless, toothless and fingerless to avoid
identification). The murders are investigated by Arkady Renko (wonderfully
played in this film by William Hurt), a chief investigator for the Moscow
militia who feels out of place in the corruption of Soviet Russia, but is
equally scornful of the consumerism of the West. The investigation delves into
a complex web of Soviet relationships with American business and the dissident
community, not least an American millionaire fur trader Jack Osborne (Lee
Marvin), and a would-be defector and possible friend of the victims, Irina
Asabova (Joanna Pacula).
What I loved about this film is the novel is a rather
overwhelming 500+ pages, but this film is a brisk and pacey two hours – and I
literally couldn’t think of a single thing missing. But then that’s what you
get when you have a master writer adapting your screenplay. Gorky Park has Dennis Potter, perhaps
the greatest British TV writer of all time – and this is a sublime script, which
keeps the pace up, covers all the tense greedy wrangling of the villains, and
also makes subtle and telling points about the Soviet system, all in a punchier
and clearer way than the books. The dialogue is also absolutely cracking,
ringing with a brusque, icy poetry, with a brilliant ear for a turn of phrase.
Filmed on location around Helsinki and Glasgow among other
places, what the film misses in actual Russian locations (needless to say the
Soviets were not keen to host the production of a film that showcased murder
and corruption at the heart of their capital city), it makes up for with
Apted’s taut direction and eye for the general crappiness of Soviet life. Everything
is run down, everything is dirty, everything looks cold and unappealing, even
the houses and luxury bathhouses of the party leaders look a bit middle-class
and uninspiring. By the time (late in the film) that you find yourself in one
of Osborne’s houses you are immediately struck by the quality of the
furnishings – it’s literally a different world.
This atmosphere not only creates something a bit more
unique, it also allows us to relax and enjoy the quality of Smith’s story. I
found it overstretched in the book, but the film gives it an urgency and a
sinister creepiness that grips your attention. Apted has a brilliant eye for
the little tricks to survive living in a police state, from watching what you
say, to carefully placing a pencil in a dialled telephone wheel to prevent bugs
from activting. Every moment is well paced and nothing outstays its welcome.
Characters are introduced with skillful brushstrokes, and the relationships
feel real and lived in. With such strong dialogue, it’s also great they got
such good actors to do it.
William Hurt takes on the lead, and he is perfect, affecting
a rather clipped English accent (all the Russians speak with various regional
or RP accents). With his unconventional looks (part boyish, part stone-like),
he looks the part and he totally captures the yearning unconventionality of a
character who deep down probably would be a true believer in a good society,
but can’t believe in the corruption around him. Far from the stereotypical
would-be dissident, Hurt makes him a man who loves his homeland, but not always
the people running it. He’s exactly as you would picture Renko in the book – a
guy who will go for justice with the bit between his teeth, a semi-romantic
hero, no superman (he frequently is bested in combat), who is looking for
something to love and believe in.
The rest of the cast are equally fine. Lee Marvin is cast
against type as a suave, hyper-intelligent, manipulatively greedy businessman –
although his reputation for playing heavies comes in handy when the gloves come
off. Joanna Pacula mixes sultry Euro-siren with an urgent yearning for freedom.
Ian Bannen is wonderfully avuncular as Renko’s supportive boss (extra points
for Tinker Tailor fans that Bannen is
reunited here with Alexander Knox, in a dark reflection of their
Control-Prideaux working relationship from that series). Michael Elphick seizes
on the part of the down-to-earth Pasha, Renko’s friend and comrade, a role
greatly improved from the book (largely to give Renko someone to bounce ideas
off).
Apted’s film has a great sense of tension and a wonderful
feeling for Soviet Moscow’s dark underbelly. The mystery is increasingly
gripping and involving as the film goes on – and, in a nice rug-pull, turns out
to be about something totally different than what you might expect. Even the
final shootout is assembled and shot with an unexpected vibe. It avoids any
Cold War pandering – the main villain is a sadistic American allied with
Russians, our hero a noble Russian who partners up with a salt-of-the-earth but
decent American cop (Brian Dennehy, also very good). For a late night mystery
thriller, with a touch of everything thrown in, you can do a lot worse than
this. I enjoyed it far more than I expected. I’d almost call it an overlooked
B-movie gem.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.