Review of Red Army (2014) by Matt C — 22 Mar 2015

This is a fascinating documentary about the Red Army Russian hockey team. The documentary is told from the perspective of Russian captain Slava Fetisov. The first half of this documentary is good to very good. The second half of the documentary is simply off the charts fantastic and it raises the movie to an A rating.

There are so many fascinating topics that are addressed here. The hockey youth movement leading to highly competitive tryouts to see if a child is even eligible to be a candidate for the Russian team is discussed in detail. The similarity to the brutal Russian regime and the type of authoritarian hockey program that they create is fascinating. The Russian coach is as close to the sadistic bandleader played by JK Simmons in Whiplash as you're going to get. He's a liar and a bully and his players hate him. Yet he helped create a hockey team and a line that played like a Tchaikovsky symphony with their beautiful weaving and remarkable passing plays and teamwork. They even used dancing techniques to train. The documentary works within the framework of current events that are affecting Russia. Stalin's desire to create superior Russian athletes, the invasion of Afghanistan, Gobachev's election, and the Russian coup all have an effect on this great Russian hockey team. The political backdrop and Russian's tyrannical leadership as well as the KGB and the Russian military are extremely important in shaping this team.

All of this is told mainly through the voice of Slava Fetisov. The documentary becomes fascinating when discussing the interpersonal relations between the players, the choice of defection, and how the Russian government had so much fear of these players being westernized. Other topics discussed are the Russian players eventual arrival in the NHL. The difficulty of adapting from a ballet type style of hockey to the more brutal sluggish style of the NHL is also emphasized. The difficulties of being accepted by fans of hockey in the USA and Canada and prejudice against the Russian players by Canadians and Americans adds a fascinating element to this documentary.

If you're looking for a documentary about the US victory over the Russians in the Winter Olympics, you've gone to the wrong movie. This is discussed but it certainly isn't the main focal point of this movie. This is simply an amazingly informative document to the skill and bravery of these Russian athletes. It's remarkable that at the end of this extraordinary film, you are rooting for these Russian hockey players as if they were Americans.