It must be time to start ridiculing leaders and former leaders alike. Joseph Stalin, you remember him? He was the dictator of the Soviet Union for three decades up until his death in 1953. As you might have seen in the trailer he died in a rather ignoble manner in his pajamas covered in urine. That seems like a rather poor way for a leader to go, particularly a leader that has such a reputation of being a cruel, hardened dictator at times throughout his rule.
Of course when a leader such as Stalin goes there’s bound to be a power vacuum left behind. Advisors, ministers, generals, even his son are left in this hilarious-looking film to quibble and squabble over what is left. Never mind, just for the moment, that not a single one of the actors is likely Russian or even being made to use a Russian accent, the main point of the film seems to be what will happen now that Stalin is gone. And more to the point it seems aimed at being a political comedy that has just the barest amount of good taste and a lot of lean towards a film that is meant to really just roast the death of this famed leader.
Upon the first viewing of the trailer I had to shake my head a few times and wonder at just what the director was thinking. The death of Stalin was rumored to be an assassination of sort considering the drug that was supposedly slipped into his drink the night of his death. A lot of people would like to debunk this as details of Stalin’s death have been spotty ever since the date it happened. No one seems to like admitting that their leader has or had a weakness of the body, mind, or spirit, but must be forced to recognize the moment when any idea of foul play is simply too weak of an excuse. Having suffered from atherosclerosis due to his heavy smoking habit, Stalin had been through a mild stroke and a severe heart attack by 1945, so his health was not the greatest. Plus, there was no chance to tell men in his condition or position that he should change his lifestyle in those days. He probably would have ignored them anyway.
The movie will definitely have some serious points to it because let’s face it, Stalin was a bit of a monster. That’s putting things extremely mild of course, he was a dictator unlike many and held his country in an iron grip for a time. There were many opinions of the man and not all of them were good, but making a dark comedy, for this is exactly what this seems like, about the man seems almost appropriate and yet so far out of left field that it seems as though it might be something that gets looked over rather than taken seriously in any way.
But maybe that’s the whole point. Realism would after all dictate that the accents of the actors be on point at least.
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