Huzzah!

The Great (2020)
Miniseries Seasons 1 -3.

There may be better places to learn about Catherine the Great, her supposed greatness and Russian history than this miniseries. With the liberal use of the creative licence and the need to lure viewers to the miniseries, the moviemakers have taken the liberty to mix and match events haphazardly. There is plenty of exhibition of flesh in different stages of undressing.

A European history student may cringe at how historical figures are interchangeable at will here.

For the records, Catherine II was not Russian but Sophia of Prussian origin. She was not of aristocratic breed. Sophia was married off to Peter III at the age of 17. She embraced Orthodox Christianity, learned Russian, and was immersed in its culture.

Unlike what is depicted in the series, Peter III was not Peter I's son but his grandson. Peter I (Peter The Great) was the one who established the Russian Empire. After Peter the Great's unceremonious demise, his second wife, Catherine I, took the helm. The rule was chaotic, and civil unrest was the order. Catherine I's rule was short. So was her grandson's, a teenage Peter II's.

Peter III, Catherine I's other grandson, only ruled for six months before his wife, Sophia, who assumed the name Catherine II, arm-twisted him in a coup and put him under house arrest. This is far different from what is supposed in the show, where they have a love-hate lovey-dovey relationship with various expressions of carnal passion.

Soon after his incarceration, Peter III died under mysterious circumstances. The official cause of death was something as ridiculous as 'haemorrhoid colic'. There was a running joke amongst diplomats who wanted to avoid a Russian posting. They would cite fear of death as they already had piles!

Funny. After her death, Peter III was supposed to have inherited the throne from Queen Elizabeth I, his maternal aunt. What do you know? She is seen here giving motherly advice on royal etiquette, marital advice, and even ideas on how to rule the Empire.

Catherine II and the whole of the Russian Empire are known to be promiscuous and to be indulged in much sexual debauchery. And the miniseries maximised it to tilt. Sex sells. Catherine II is known to have had multiple lovers, just like any male emperor would have, for political reasons.

Another interesting observation in this miniseries is the character named Pugachev. Here, he assumes the role of Peter III's bodydouble to confuse possible assassins. From my understanding, the closest he came to Peter III was broadcasting to the serfs that he was indeed Catherine II's estranged husband. Pugachev started a rebellion with the support of the serfs. It did not succeed, of course.

Catherine II's CV shows that she introduced smallpox vaccination to Russians, even before Edward Jenner made inoculating cowpox exudates to stimulate immunity against smallpox. She had picked this up from the Persians, who learned from the Hindus.

Despite its historical inaccuracies, the miniseries was a humorously entertaining one, though. With witty, well-written script with wordplay and innuendoes, it was a delight to watch if one does not mind the Russian aristocracy speaking polished English! Be prepared for many F-bombs and toilet humour. As per the disclaimer, the producers have forewarned us that it is an occasionally true story. Huzzah!

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History made easy!

King's Man (2021)
Story and Direction: Matthew Vaughn

I am so happy that the history lessons I was exposed to in childhood were varied. Thanks to the old Malaysian syllabus, the people of my generation are exposed to the likes of Rasputin, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the events leading to World War 1.

At least I know the storytellers stretched their artistic licence too far to convince the viewers that a single organisation headed by 'The Shepherd' singlehandedly masterminded the genesis of WW1 and the collapse of the Romanov dynasty in Russia. Interestingly, Rasputin is portrayed as a member of this cult and works in cahoots with 'The Shepherd' and receives orders from him. 

Even Gavrilo Princip, Archduke Ferdinand's assassin, is said to be in the above group. In reality, we know he did not act alone but as a member of a secret society called 'Black Hand'. True, the first assassination attempt failed, but the fatal shooting was by sheer coincidence.

Rasputin -The Mad Monk

Rasputin is visualised here as I remember him from my textbooks - A tall, scrawny man with bad teeth, piercing eyes, and a bevvy of women trailing in his shadows. If my memory does not fail me, the Russian prince suffered from haemophilia. Rasputin garnered the monarch's admiration after treating the haemorrhaging prince following a bad fall, not after poisoning him. 

Margaretha MacLeod nee Zelle
aka Mata Hari

I know the 'Mata Hari' was a Dutch spy accused of working for the Nazis. I never heard of her landing in the USA, and having a secret film recording of her in a compromising position with Woodrow Wilson prevented the USA from entering WW1. It was the gunning of the ocean liner RMS 'Lusitania' by German U-boats. Of course, some say it carried weapons and ammunition to the Allied Forces.

History is made easy here. It seems that The Shephard and his Flock. Vladimir Lenin and even a young Hitler are portrayed to have their beginnings in this movement. In essence, one hand controls the world's direction.

Despite being the third in its series, this film is actually a prequel to its predecessors. It shows how this clandestine movement started with a pacifist, Orlando, the Duke of Oxford, losing his wife during Boer War. Orlando's son, Conrad, watches the whole drama and grows up to want to fight evil.

After Conrad dies, the movement goes gangbusters to get to the root of world problems. The invincible Shephard is located and is neutralised.

An enjoyable watch, only for its cross-reference to world history events.

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So much about being civilised!

Donbass (Russian/Ukrainian; 2018)
Written/Direction: Sergei Loznitsa

The other day, a day after Putin's army invaded Ukraine, posts on many Malaysians' social media posts read, 'Pray for Ukraine'. One should not have sleepless nights thinking of 'writings on the walls' like this, as it has become almost like a knee-jerk reaction to any world event. Nobody wants to ask why should we pray to an omnipotent God who was in a position not to let it happen at all in the first place. But yet, they convince themselves by alleging that great things are willed by Him, but the follies are only ours. His Grace will save us.

Hey, don't the Malaysians have a bone to pick with the Ukrainians? After all, it is above their airspace that our national carrier MH17 went down in 2014? Ukrainian pro-Russian freedom fighters allegedly shot the MAS plane with Russian firepower as determined by the multinational Joint Investigative Tribunal. So Ukrainians are not all at fault but Putin and the Russians? To date, nothing has happened. Putin denies everything. Family members have sued the airline for taking that war-torn route, but nobody can touch Russia.

MH17: What was left of it!

The recent Ukraine invasion has taught us that everybody in Russia is convinced that their reason for war is just. They bring in the pride of patriotism defending one's nationalistic spirit, ideology, free spirit or religion. They forget that, like what Lao Tsu had said, 'Nobody wins in a war!' This message is specially targetted to the layman in the street.s The leaders who stir the false sentiment can quickly flee from the country for political asylum. The public dies as martyrs to be immortalised as national treasures in monuments for crows to lay their excrements.

The current situation is more complicated than meets the eye. The world media paints a very one-dimensional narrative of the whole conflict - the badass communist infiltrating a young country newly escaped from the evil clutches of communism trying to be spread love in the free world! It is more complicated than that. 

The history of Ukraine goes way back before that of Russia. Whilst the Russian wasteland was roamed by nomadic tribes and barbaric horsemen, Ukraine already had a semblance of civilisational living which the Christian invader later labelled as pagan. Empires over empires split up this region over the centuries till it was usurped by the winning Red Soviet. The Reds wanting to maintain their hegemony started russifying the area. The Eastern part of Ukraine ended up with a large population who associated themselves with Mother Russia.

Wars bring out the best and worst of humanity!

After losing its communist mettle, Putin and his henchmen try to influence Ukrainian leaders with carrots. The citizens, still reeling from the tail-end days of communism, are reasonably contented with capitalism and the free spirit it had to offer. 

Now, the region is left with a zombie-like Neonazi faction of Ukrainian and Wagner's group of mercenary soldiers who do Putin's dirty work. 

Ukraine is now in the same position as a child caught between two divorcing parents. On one side, the West enticed them with business and bio-weapon laboratories. The Russian oligarchs brought in the mollah, but they centred it around Dondass and the eastern part of the country. The Western part ended up as rent-seekers depending on the Eastern industrialists. Now the helpers from both sides have washed their hands. To add salt on the wound, Ukraine, in the name of saving humanity from annihilation from a nuclear mushroom, have given up their nuclear facilities. Now they have to depend on the world's goodwill to stay afloat. 

This documentary was made in 2014 amid a civil war when Russians supported rebel groups that wanted to take the country. It is a kind of cruel caricature of war does, not to powers that be in the ivory tower, but to average Joe Public. Disruption of daily routine, loss of basic amenities, basic decency and lack of basic needs of life are not felt by the generals but by the man on the street. In the name of patriotism and wanting to defend a piece of cloth, they thump their chest to protect their land and send their offspring to the slaughter.

Love and marriage go on still!

It was a time when Russia annexed Crimea that a separatist group from the Donbas region tried to redeem autonomy from Ukraine with the help of the Russian army.

From time immemorial, people from this region have been fighting. From the time of the Kievan Rus to the Cossack to the reign of Catherine the Great to the Habsburg Empire, then to the World Wars and Soviet era, it has been just wars over wars. And the Caucasians have the audacity to consider themselves as higher beings ordained by God to civilise the coloured natives of their dark and demonic civilisations. 

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Eyeball to eyeball; the fellow blinked!

Thirteen Days (2000)

Director: Roger Donaldson

Recently Barbados, the Island Country in the Caribbean, cut her ties from British Commonwealth and declared herself a republic. She unceremoniously replaced QEII with her President as the Head of State to cut off England's previous legacy in slavery. 

It also declared China as a friendly nation to rub salt on an open wound. To strengthen bilateral ties, flights between countries were commenced, and Barbados went so far as to let the Middle Kingdom finance many of its development projects. The Western world decries that this is a prelude to a takeover of Barbados by China via debt traps. Barbados denies, saying that China's loans constitute only 2.5% of the nation's total debt.

America is, of course, hot under the collar because of its proximity to the United States. This kind of reminds us of the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the autumn of 1962, which almost triggered the Third World War. 

Soviet SS4 ballistic missiles.

After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Cuba requested Big Brother protection. The Soviet Union offered to park some medium-range missiles in Cuba, just in case. This was discovered by the prying USAF U2 spy planes.

The movie tries to capture the events that unfolded over the next thirteen days in October 1962 as President Kennedy and his team tried to get these nuclear missiles far away from their soil. It is told from the point of view of JFK's political secretary, Kenneth O'Donnell. 

It showcases the Army bigwigs so gungho in pushing the Big Red Button to start a war with the Soviet Union as JFK attempts desperately to avert a clash. Kenneth O'Donnell is seen as a kingmaker in cutting many back deals behind the scene with the Russians. JFK imposed a 'quarantine' to prevent Soviet missiles from reaching Cuba by sea. It was purposely not labelled 'blockade' as it would infer aggression and justify war. The US did lose a pilot and had another plane shot at as it went on its clandestine reconnaissance work. Still, it was hushed from the media apparently by O'Donnell's backhand manoeuvres. Of course, O'Donnell's keen involvement in the whole hoopla is denied by many who were directly involved in the crisis. They say that his job was just to attend to JFK's political needs, not actively influencing the President's and the AG's (Robert Kennedy) decisions! 

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The clash of art, science and faith

Stalker (Russian, 1979)
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Now, what is the purpose of the arts? Are they there to entertain, to create an alternate universe for us to unwind from the real world. The world we live in is no pleasure cruise; hence an outlet is necessary to imagine something parallel reality in which we could star? Or is it a conduit for us to introspect what is in front of us, assess and make a better version of ourselves? 

Judging from how all the powers-that-be are fighting against each other to the last breath wanting to control the media, the arts are definitely a powerful tool in skewing the masses' minds towards a particular direction. Hollywood, CCP and the mainstream media want to push us in one order, whilst the other, in opposition to the powers-that-be, would draw to another. That is until the opposition comes to power. Their roles and choices will reverse.

I recently got introduced to the legendary Russian moviemaker and film theorist Andrei Tarkovsky. He is known for making extremely slow-moving movies that may immerse certain movie connoisseurs into the story's crux whilst being excruciatingly painful to the average Joe, who is too tired to appreciate the nuances of filmmaking. He uses natural sounds and lighting to give a more significant impact to his cinematography.

The story is usually pregnant with dream-like scenes that stay in viewers' minds for a mighty long time. It carries with it much metaphysical meaning that may mean different things to different people. This is the very thing that got Tarkovsky into trouble with the Soviet authorities. After 'Stalker', which took swipes at communism indirectly by talking about faith, Tarkovsky decided to emigrate. He made Italy and later Sweden his home.

The movie starts with the sound of vibrating furniture in response chugging of a passing train. He looks at his sleeping wife and the tween daughter napping between them. He quietly gets dressed to leave, but his wife awakens. She goes on a rant about how her life is miserable and how irresponsible of him to join the expedition. We gather that he had just been released from prison. He goes anyway.

The man is a tour guide, also locally referred to as a stalker, who brings tourists clandestinely to a high-security restricted part of the now closing-down town called 'The Zone'. 'The Zone' is said to have had alien visitations or may have been hit by a meteor, but has some special powers, especially in 'The Room'. That day, Stalker is supposed to take 'The Writer' and 'The Professor' to the 'The Zone'.

The rest of the story, which is supposed to be science fiction, tries to discover what goes through the minds of the three characters as they travel deep into 'The Zone' in search of 'The Room'. Stalker is the only person who has the know-how to wriggle around 'The Zone' because he follows certain rituals and believes in certain superstitions. He needs the money.

'Writer' has hit a low point in his writing. He hopes that by getting into 'The Room', his creative juices will start flowing all over again. 'Professor' wants to see, explore and debunk the myths surrounding 'The Room'. Later we discover that he plans to destroy it.

At the end of the show, it appears that this story is an allegory to faith and religion. It tries to pitch art and science versus faith. Many religious symbols can be picked up, for example, a thorn crown. The Stalker, who holds his faith dearly, in the end, finds resolution to all the quandaries that mired in his life - a handicapped child and an unhappy wife. 'Writer' and 'Professor' still carry on life without purpose, getting no benefit from visiting 'The Room'.

'Stalker' turned out to be a troubled film for Tarkovsky and his team. He had significant creative differences with his cinematographic editor. A large portion of his film reels was damaged because they needed special developing techniques. The area they were shooting is said to be a toxic wasteland, probably with radioactive materials, that gave cancer to Tarkovsky and his wife.

[P.S. Russia's filmmaking skills took a great leap forward when Nikita Krushchev took over the realms from Stalin in 1953. Reversing Stalin's xenophobic policies, he opened cultural exchange with many countries. India, the Soviet's ardent admirer, had a healthy joint development of its movies. Raj Kapoor's 'Mere Naam Joker' was an example of a Russian actress playing a significant role. 'Awaara', made in 1956, is said to be Russia's all-time favourite Indian film. Shri 420 comes a close second. 

Many Russians can still be heard to be humming to the tune 'Awara Hoon'. For the record, "Awara Hoon' is based on a Turkish folk song. There is a report of an unsuspecting Raj Kapoor once mobbed by a bevvy of Moscow girls. The star-struck girls stopped his cab and pulled him out of the taxi for a meaningful star-fan moment.]

Raj Kapoor in Moscow in 1967.
He was uprooted from his taxi when someone identified him as a Bollywood star!

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It is all about power and control

The Death of Stalin (2017)

The difference between Capitalism in the West and Communism in the East of Europe arose because Capitalist societies retained philosophical persuasions and political pluralism as expressed in a parliamentary democracy, a free press and free trade unions. Communist societies, on the other hand, froze Marxist philosophy into a closed system of orthodoxy. This led to heresy-hunting, which in due course reduced Marxism to the status of a Semitic creed like Christianity and Islam. Bertrand Russell was not far wrong when he identified Communism as a Christian heresy. It has acquired all the characteristic features of the Christian Church such as the only saviour, the only Revelation, the only Pope, the only priesthood, the only baptism, and the only sacraments. Communist regimes could not help becoming totalitarian enemies of human freedom.

The initial success of the Bolshevik Revolution is evidenced by the advancements in living conditions and headway in science, technology and space exploration. Buried in the rubble of development was the loss of human lives in the name of dissidence and the rebel yell for freedom.

For quite a while, Capitalism portrayed itself as the saviour of Mankind after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Greed drove economies, and everyone was happy. Nobody realised that unregulated Capitalism was the harbinger of many unrests that were to ensue. Vulture Capitalism left a trail of destruction and the widening of the gap between the haves and have nots. What started as compassionate capitalism which replaced despotic regimes and feudalistic autocrats ended up as cutthroat capitalism. The weak remained suppressed under any economic modality.

We finally realise that the world has all the resources to fulfil our needs but not our greed. No one economic system can sustain our wellbeing forever. It is innate within to take shortcuts and find ways to beat the system. We get lazy and cut corners.

Despite earning the unenviable reputation of having killed off over 20 million people during his reign, including more than a million the Gulags, Stalin still have a place in the heart of many Russians. His feat of decimating the Nazi Army singlehandedly, after being left to fend for themselves by the Allied Forces in the Second World War, hails him as the favourite leader. In a poll in conjunction with the Centennial Celebrations of the Bolshevik Revolution, 51% of respondents voted favourably towards Josef Stalin as a real Russian leader. Putin has been compared positively to Stalin in meting actions against 'outlaw' former Soviet states like Ukraine.

Stalin and his band of yeomen

The 'Death of Stalin' is a satirical piece on the set-up of 1953 Soviet Russia surrounding the time of the demise of their supreme leader. It tells about the grudgingly subservient people in the inner circle of the Politburo. Secretly each has power ambitions but does not dare to state the obvious for fear of joining the scores of people sent regularly to face the firing squad for alleged treason. Before the body is cold, they are scurrying around in an attempt to shore up their positions like in a court suddenly in need of a king. The inner circle of Stalin's 'comrades-in-arms' include Georgy Malenkov, Stalin's likely successor and deputy premier; Lavrenti Beria, Stalin's influential chief of the secret police; Nikita Khrushchev, whom Stalin had summoned to Moscow to balance the power dynamics of Malenkov and Beria; and Nikolai Bulganin, Stalin's defence minister. 

At the end of the day, even though the film opened to rave reviews in film festivals, it left with a bit of bad after taste. There were historical inaccuracies in the timeline of events that were shown in this supposedly historical movie. It ended up neither being a comedy act nor one which highlighted the horrors of Stalinism.

The movie is banned in Russia and many of the former colonies of Soviet Russia for denigrating Russia's WW2 war heroes and being disrespectful of their history.

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Start a revolution from my bed?

Hunt for Red October (1990)

Many keyboard warriors are so convinced by what they see online. They fail to understand why others are so dumb (in their eyes, of course). To them, truth our there is as clear as day. And everyone else just ought to follow, no questions asked. What these modern warriors or influencers, as they are referred to these days, need to know is that sometimes we become too blinded with our beliefs that we fail to practice mindfulness. They should wear another hat and maybe a different colour lens, other than rose, to get a different perspective on things. A revolution cannot be started by an army of one. It begins with the revolution of the collective minds and hearts of the people. This change is difficult, more so in modern times, as we are so divided by ideologies, cultures, faiths and identity.

This film is based on Tom Clancy's 1984 novel which in turn was loosely based on Soviet Union's 1975 attempted mutiny aboard a warship. In the 1975 revolt, a brand-new Russian frigate, Storozhevoy, is hijacked by its Third Rank Captain, Valery Sablin. He was convinced that Leonid Brezhnev's Soviet Union had lost its original Leninist's visions. The system was plagued with corruption and lies. Sablin wanted to use the hijack as a political statement to stir the Russian to engage in its Second Revolution. His plan fell flat, and he and his fellow men were incarcerated.

Storozhevoy

In the book and the film version, the warship was changed to a spanking new state-of-art nuclear-powered radar-escaping submarine. A rogue Russian Captain uses the invincibility of the sub to defect to the USA. The problem is the US Navy does not know of his intention and are wary of the intrusion of a Russian submarine in international waters. At the same time, the Russian authorities realise the rogue Captain's plan. The Russians are at wit's end to stop the Americans from laying their hands on Russia's highly advanced submarine. 

The highly suspenseful drama describes how the US Navy manages to save the day. They help the Russian crew to defect, rescue the submarine and embarrass the Russian at their own game.

It is naive to believe that truth will always prevail in the end. Things in real life are much more convoluted than that. The power brokers, financiers, the leaders, big pharma companies and the media moguls have the final say of how history ought to be written. Poetic justice and honesty are left to pacify the romantics. It is the rule of the majority. Annoyance from the minority can be easily boomeranged back to the senders by the powers that be (spoiler alert). 

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