Red Army

Dir: Gabe Polsky

2014

***

Red Army is playful and political and neither, and isn’t just for those with an interest in politics or Ice Hockey. It tells the story of Russia’s ‘Red Army’, their unbeatable national Ice Hockey team who became a symbol of the USSR’s power and strength and a propaganda tool during the last years of the cold war. The story is told through a series of interviews and recordings of/with the team players, political experts and sports pundits. I have to say it was hard to understand the angle of writer and director Gabe Polsky or the style of his questions. There he is, with the original team – most importantly their captain Slava Fetisov, and all he can ask them is the questions they aren’t interested in answering. He seems to know exactly which questions will bother them the most, which makes no sense to the viewer for much of the film. It isn’t until you realise that Polsky was born of Russian immigrants do you understand he isn’t just another American with just as biased a political view point than the Russians. He’s also a Hockey Player himself, so he knows the story and suggest there is something more to it that is never mentioned. On the face of it this seems like the story of any other successful team but once you really begin to read between the lines, something doesn’t seem quite right. Absolutely nothing is suggested though, Polsky’s game is a subtle one I believe, the two things that struck a chord with me though was that a. Werner Herzog was executive producers and b. Fetisov is now a minister in Vladimir Putin’s government. I understand that Fetisov and his team mate’s stoicism and somewhat lack of emotion is a microcosm of the society they grew up in but there is something fascinating, and undiscovered, about how the young sportsmen were so quick to return back to Russia, after fighting so hard to leave for the USA and Canada to embrace capitalism. I wonder if there was more to it than age related pride. The exploration of game-play is fascinating stuff though, the players were trained using unique moves and methods designed by Russian chess expert Anatoly Karpov and by incorporating dance routines used by the Bolshoi ballet. The system remains unbeaten today. It’s an honest insight into the way Russian life really was and why Mikhail Gorbachev announced glasnost in the late 1980s. Polsky clearly admires the players and they clearly have a sense of humour, so it’s a very Russian game they play, so it is far more refreshing than your average talking heads style documentary. I think the only time Fetisov and the other players are 100% honest is when they declare their love and admiration for their original coach, and when they speak of their later coach, the ruthless and somewhat cruel Viktor Tikhonov, whom died just before the film was made. It’s quite an absorbing documentary that transcends various ideologies. I’m sure it opened many eyes into the world of politics and the cold war, as well Ice Hockey and how sportsmanship is portrayed across the world.