MovieChat Forums > The Death of Stalin (2018) Discussion > Dark

Dark

posted 7 years ago by huwdj (4563)
4 replies | jump to latest

I enjoyed this film and I found the excellent cast very good. There are also some laugh out loud moments but, and this may be me, it's really really dark. It’s satire, not comedy and I don’t find satire that funny – it’s often clever and I generally appreciate it but there are rarely many laughs – at least for me. It tells a monstrous horrible story as a series of absurdities, of people twisted in to ways of thinking and behaving by years of fear and power. But the underlying themes are terror, rape, torture and unthinking brutality and you cannot get away from that watching the film – maybe you’re not supposed to?

[–] jriley555 (7248) 6 years ago

i suppose you react against the seeming levity associated with brutality. ok, but then again, remember there is such a thing as gallows humor, originally rendered by the people headed for the gallows.

sometimes history plays out as black comedy.

i can certainly envision this critical period as ripe for such a treatment. its historically accurate that, as stalin laid there stroking all night, everyone was too terrified to go into the room - to help him.

now -that- is funny.

it was hilarious, largerly adhered in the main to historical events, looked right at the brutal reality underneath the slapstick.

this is a very tight film.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

I hope it is both educational and entertaining in a funny way.

[–] FilmBuff (6859) 6 years ago

That's how I took it, too. It was accurate in the big picture sense, though it played with some specifics to tell a better story, but was hilarious from start to finish. Certainly gallows humor, but funny is funny, and this film is brilliant in that regard.

Buscemi was remarkable in his seamless transition from seemingly simpering and scatterbrained to brutally efficient with his political machinations. You can't isolate a single moment where he changes, either. It's a moment by moment, gradual transition that never misses a beat, and probably my favorite performance of of his of any I've seen.

Everyone else gave strong performances, too, and there isn't a weak link in the cast. For all the absurdities and atrocities, there wasn't a moment where I felt anything felt forced or faked. This may well be the best film I've seen so far in 2018.

[–] looper007 (1158) 5 years ago

It's definitely a lot darker then anything Armando Iannucci has every done, and it probably had to be considering what was happening during that period of time in the Soviet Union. It mixed well it's dark comedy with it's more dark themes, the way human live is just thrown away without much fuss is the scariest part in the film for me. Simon Russell Beale played a right evil bastard, and yet you somehow feel for him in a way by the end. I love that Michael Palin's character is seen as a bit of a fool but is probably the most dangerous one out of the group, he's willing to give up his own wife. Jeffrey Tambor character is just a man out of his depth, without a backbone and not to be relied on. Steve Buscemi, the best thing in it, is really doing it for his own needs and will betray anyone to get power.

It's a sad film in a way as much as it's funny. Andrea Riseborough who plays Stalin's daughter is basically told to get out of her own country and not see her brother again without a second thought was heartbreaking. Fantastic film.