Rating of
2.5/4
"The Death Of Stalin"
Yojimbo - wrote on 08/15/19
Upon the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, his fellow party members jostle for position in an attempt to wrest power for themselves.
The Death Of Stalin has invited comparison with Dr. Strangelove because of its depiction of serious geopolitical events as farce, but Armando Iannucci's film has rather more in common with his previous foray into political satire In The Loop. Like that film, the characters are portrayed not as political colossi but as a fallible, corrupt and self-serving bunch all climbing over each other to find advantage. Stalin himself is portrayed as a kind of East End gangster who matter of factly uses murder for convenience and his lackeys as weak-willed sycophants who cannot wait to climb out from under his shadow; in fact much of the farcical black comedy comes from the indiscriminate killing of everyone and anyone who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whether you are actually going to find this funny is purely down to taste of course, and I personally felt that the script lacked the wit and presence of the foul-mouthed anti-hero of In The Loop. A scene-stealing turn by Jason Isaacs as Field Marshall Zhukov by way of Yorkshire does rectify this somewhat however, as does Michael Palin's presence which gives it a mild Pythonesque quality in his amusing unwillingness to "betray" Stalin's memory under any circumstances to the detriment of his own wife.
The Death Of Stalin is rarely as laugh out loud funny as In The Loop, but it is a refreshing change of tack that throws a different light on political history.
