Reviewed by Tom Roberts
Stars Xxxxx Xxxxx, Xxxxx Xxxxx, Xxxxx Xxxxx, Xxxxx Xxxxx,
Xxxxx Xxxxx, Xxxxx Xxxxx, Xxxxx Xxxxx, Xxxxx Xxxxx, Xxxxx Xxxxx | Written by Xxxxx Xxxxx
UK certification X | UK RRP £xx.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime xxx minutes | Directed by Xxxxxxx Xxxxxx
The 1917 Russian Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War form the backdrop of The Admiral. Essentially, it’s a love story played out with the shrill of explosions and gunfire permanently in the background, but like war itself, it’s a mess and arguably a worthless undertaking.
Alexander Kolchak is a revered navy admiral but when the socialist Bolshevik Red Army comes to power in Russia, Kolchak becomes Supreme Leader of the counter-revolutionary White Army. The Bolsheviks are slowly rolling across Russia, but to complicate the already monumental task that Kolchak is facing, he’s fallen in love. Kolchak has a son and is already married, as is his new infatuation Anna Timiriova. Seemingly worse still, Anna is the wife of Kolchak’s fellow naval officer.
But, for some inexplicable reason, his wife, kid and lover’s husband are all willing to accept that Kolchak and Anna are going to run off together. It’s truly bizarre how readily the cheated spouses accept their upcoming singledom. Kolchak and Anna meet and flirt, but ultimately war prevents their love from blossoming. Kolchak hops on his warship and Anna returns to her husband, albeit she’s writing letters to the admiral and cherishing the words she receives in return. Occasionally, the two meet for minutes at a time every few years, but it’s a distant relationship fueled by the eternal flame of love at first sight rather than the throws of passion.
In between these fleeting meetings, Kolchak is contending with the Bolsheviks. Think Saving Private Ryan but in snow or at sea and you get the picture. The Admiral was one of Russia’s most expensive films ever made when it hit cinemas in 2008, costing some $20 million. But, whereas Hollywood might spend that much on a leading actor alone, The Admiral manages to look like it was filmed with five times that much financial backing.
The battles are suitably explosive, violent, loud and bloody affairs. Kolchak is depicted as a bold, inspiring leader, admired by his troopers almost as much as by Anna. But, the politics behind the wars always play second fiddle to dismembered limbs. Ten minutes of surfing the web provided far more detail on the Russian Civil War than sitting through two hours of The Admiral. But, additionally it seems Kolchak was hardly a saint either: he was responsible for killing 25,000 people in one Siberian town alone. The picture painted by the filmmakers is nauseatingly glorifying, which is presumably why so little is made of his adultery.
Sweeping the history aside, even as a love story it falls flat though. Anna eventually stalks Kolchak and when they unite, there is zero passion. After years of waiting all Kolchak can manage is a peck on the hand. Their romance is seemingly sparked from thin air as well. That’s fair enough: love obeys no rules, but compared to something like The English Patient or even the saccharine Titanic, Anna and Kolchak give little to no indications of why they genuinely love one another.
The Admiral is not worthy of its badges then. The love story is undercooked, the context is both wasted and dubious, and the action has been done better elsewhere.
EXTRAS Just a trailer. Rubbish.