Lambie Reviews Nicholas and Alexandra

Year:1971
Accolades: Acadeny Award Nominee for Best Picture

Nicholas and Alexandra is a mostly non-fiction account of the downfall of the Russian Tsar Nicholas and the events that eventually led to the execution of himself and his family. This is a long and at times painfully slow film, but in amongst the plodding storyline there are some really interesting elements.

The scenes detailing the political intrigue are what I found to be the most fascinating stuff. The first act of the film is full of this, with Nicholas trying to clamp down on political dissidents while Lenin tries to work his way to power. Both characters in this film are portrayed somewhat sympathetically, but ultimately flawed. They both have the Russian people's best interests at heart, but both of their approaches are certainly not for the better of the people (even if they don't know it) and at times quite bloodthirsty.

The first act is also full of wonderful film making. There is some beautiful cinematography, and the use of and the lack of dialogue is used artfully. Films of this time set in non-English speaking countries usually dispensed with the natural language or accents, and this film is no different. Yet in this film, the fact that Russians are all speaking in English accents doesn't seem to upset the tone of the film. It does get a little odd later on, when we start to see the Russian language actually written down everywhere on signs and banners and whatnot, and a German character speaks English in a German accent, but it's easy to overlook this because it somehow all fits together nicely anyway.

The film falls down a bit in the second and third acts, though. The film becomes bogged down in trying to fit in as much detail about the Tsar's incompetence and inability to get things done properly with the government and his people. It also becomes bogged down in the concern for his son, who was born a haemophiliac and therefore is always in quite a delicate position. It just feels like filler that could have been mentioned once or twice and trimmed out, rather than crammed in like it is. This goes on well after the Tsar's abdication all the way to the end of the film.

It means that other important characters disappear for what feels like hours at a time. Lenin is gone throughout the entire second act and only comes back to win power in the third act. Rasputin (played by none other than Tom Baker) just seems to come and go as the film makers please, until he is eventually killed off. Three times. (Ironically one less than the number of times he was apparently killed off in reality).

The film does redeem itself a little late into the third act. We really see the royal family struggle through the hardship of basically being political prisoners, having to be transported around in secret so they don't get killed by angry mobsters. Some of the more interesting character moments arise in the third act, as does the tension. The final execution scene in particular is brutally intense. You know what's coming. Even if you don't know the history, you're still given enough information in the film to know what's coming, but the film makes you wait it out in silence like Nicholas and his family.

So in short, it's a good film, but not a great film, that was probably a lot longer than it needed to be. I did find my attention wandering off at times, but I could still pick up what was going on if I missed something. Although apparently Ian Holm was in there somewhere and I missed him. I picked Brian Cox though.