MovieChat Forums > Admiral (2008) Discussion > An American's Take on 'Admiral'

An American's Take on 'Admiral'


This is an America’s take on the film.

What I liked:

1.The first half I enjoyed a great deal. The story, the battles at the beginning, even the start of the revolution and civil war was fine.
2.The costumes were wonderful.
3.The battles between the whites and reds were short but good.
4.The battles on the sea, wonderful.
5.I’m fine with the religious overtones of the story, icons, crosses, priest, and prayer.
6.The actors who played the officers in the film were grand, I felt they came off as aristocrat officers of the Empire.

Problems:

1. Half way into the film it starts to lose steam, or turn into another film.
2. The romantic story I felt took away from the story. This Admiral, who had a wife and child, then leaves them for a fellow naval officer’s wife, and that woman left her husband, I don’t care for that. This sent the message that was in opposition to the rest of the movie, that message being faith in Russia, God, and giving of ones self to a great cause. Yet here we have a man forsaking his wife, and a woman forsaking her husband.
3. More could have been spend on explaining the campaign in Siberia, and the military and politics of the period, it felt rushed and I would have like to known more.
4. A background of Admiral Kolchak would have been good, not everyone who sees the movie will know of his back ground.

I would have like to have seen this done as two films or a mini series, then more detail could have been given to Admiral Kolchak services in the Russo-Japanese War, his exploring of the north Pole, World War I service, and of course his role in the Civil War.
I did enjoy the film, I liked it, it would grade out at 75%. I will use parts of it as a school teacher, and I hope that the Russian Film Industry continues to make period set films.

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I guess two films could have been interesting, it would have been the Russian Equivalent of Gettysburg and Gods and Generals? Haha, seriously though, the love story may take away from the idea of commitment to God and Russia, but it happened, besides, bottom line Kolchak was not all that great, this one flaw ignores many of his other flaws, which is good or bad for the film? You decide, but really I think box office audiences would prefer that to a genocidal dictator who had no experience in land warfare.

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> genocidal dictator who had no experience in land warfare

you mean, Putin?

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> What I liked: [...]

Well, I liked the camera work a lot -- many great shots throughout the movie. The story was a little too melodramatic for my tastes, though.

I also liked the song at the end of the movie (while the credentials were rolling) -- does anyone know who's singing?

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[deleted]

It is a miniseries in Russian about 10 hours long, I just watched it last month. MUCH better than the movie.
This is why your comments make sense because during the series all becomes clear.

Sadly the Russians have many fine mini-series available but it appears the west is not destined to see them at all. too bad :-( good thing I live in Ukraine!!

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[deleted]

I agree on al your points, the way I solve this is with a little editing program and cutting out the junk, and cutting the film down to 1 hr 23 minutes. I love technology, no more filler or UN-nessesary sub plots for me.

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