The Death of Stalin

The movie is a black comedy by the Cohen brothers, I'm not always a fan of their work but this one is very good, and surprisingly historically accurate, both in the events and the the depiction of life in the old Soviet Union where fear tugged at everyone's coat, from the highest to the lowest.

The movie starts with a concert Stalin wants a recording of. He personally calls the concert hall and tells the fellow who answers the call he wants a call back in 17 minutes. Panic ensues as the staff tries to figure out exactly when the 17 minutes starts. When the concert folks get in touch with Stalin he tells them he wants a recording of the concert, but no recording has been made. This causes the concert folks to redo the whole concert with an audience of people dragged in from the street. A problem ensues when the pianist who hates Stalin most refused to co-operate until she's given a substantial bribe. When the LP is cut she slips in a note telling Stalin, in a nutshell he's a despicable human being. Stalin reads it, has a stroke and falls over.

The rest of the movie is the maneuvering to succeed Stalin, especially to get rid of his chief of security, Beria who made Stalin look like a girl scout. It ends with Krushchev's taking power.

There are some excellent performances, especially Steve Buscemi as Krushchev and Jason Isaacs as Zhukov. Of course I suspect there is some loosness in interpretation of character. I doubt Malenkov is quite the gutless weasel he is portrayed as in the movie.

Well worth watching, it's able to provide some giggles while depicting a truly horrifying period.

On a gun note. Firearms in the movie are right on the money for 1953 as are military uniforms, other costumes and sets.