"Nicholas and Alexandra" is an example of what might be called the "modern epic", the genre which sought to apply the scale and techniques of the Biblical or Classical epic to episodes from nineteenth or twentieth history. Although ancient history epics fell out of favour after the mid-sixties, the modern epic had a longer shelf-life, surviving into the eighties ("Gandhi", "The Last Emperor") and even the nineties ("Titanic").
Perhaps the greatest exponent of the modern epic was David Lean, the director of "Bridge on the River Kwai", "Lawrence of Arabia", "Dr Zhivago", and "Ryan's Daughter". He also attempted to make "A Passage to India" in a similar style, although it is a style not really suited to Forster's novel. It may have been the success of "Dr Zhivago" which persuaded the makers of this film to try another epic with a Russian theme, although this time based upon fact rather than a work of fiction. It tells the story of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, and his wife Alexandra. Although it is a lengthy film, around three hours in length, it does not tell the story of their courtship (which might have made an interesting film in itself, given Nicholas's father's opposition to Alexandra as a daughter-in-law), nor of the early years of their marriage. It begins around 1904, the time of Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and of the birth of the couple's only son, Alexis.
Nicholas was a strange and contradictory character. In his public life he was determined to defend Russia's autocratic system of government, even though his weak and vacillating personality made him an unlikely and unsuitable autocrat. In private, however, he was a kindly man, deeply in love with his wife and a loving father to his children. (Similar contradictions can be seen in the characters of two other monarchs who fell victims to revolutions, Charles I of England and Louis XVI of France). Alexandra, however beloved she may have been by her husband and family, was never popular with the Russian people. This was partly due to her German background (the Germans, for political reasons, were often disliked in Russia at this period), partly because she was seen as cold and aloof and partly because she had fallen under the influence of the mystic Rasputin, who was widely though incorrectly believed to be her lover.
Epics about turn-of-the-century royalty have not always been successful; "Mayerling", made a few years earlier about another doomed pair of royal lovers, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his mistress Marie Vetsera, was sumptuous to look at but otherwise uninteresting. "Nicholas and Alexandra", by contrast, is as visually attractive as the earlier film but a much better film all round. Whereas "Mayerling" featured two big-name stars, Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve, in the leading roles, Nicholas and Alexandra are played by two relatively unknown actors, Michael Jayston and Janet Suzman, and it is the unknowns who come off best. In the hands of Sharif and Deneuve Rudolf and Marie remain dull and inert, whereas Jayston (who bears a close resemblance to the late Tsar) and Suzman succeed in making their characters three-dimensional and well rounded, sympathetic despite their all-too-obvious flaws. There are some other excellent contributions from Tom Baker (the future Doctor Who) as Rasputin, here portrayed not as an outright villain but as a man possessed of a certain spirituality despite his own character weaknesses (such as a taste for strong drink and pretty women), from Michael Bryant as Lenin, played as an arrogant autocrat-in-the-making, and from Timothy West as the Imperial Family's loyal doctor.
After the Revolution of 1917 the Communists tried to portray their seizure of power as the inevitable result of ineluctable historical forces. In reality, the replacement of a bad system by a worse one was anything but inevitable. Although Tsarist autocracy was, by the early twentieth century, an anachronistic institution, and one that was probably unsustainable in the long run, many Russians still retained a certain affection for their "Batyushka", or Little Father, and the system might well have lasted much longer but for chance factors. We see Lenin and his comrades in their Zurich exile, lamenting the seeming indestructibility of the Russian monarchy and fearing that their own movement is doomed to failure. What sealed the doom of Tsarism and allowed the Communists their chance was the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and the poor performance of the Russian armies, leading to popular unrest to the fall of the regime in March 1917, and the final triumph of the Bolsheviks in November of that year after a brief, doomed attempt to create a liberal democracy. (John McEnery is very good as the idealistic Kerensky, leader of the democratic forces, whose idealism is frustrated first by the stubbornness of the Tsar and then by the ruthlessness of the Communists).
The most moving scenes in the film are the final ones, when the Romanovs are being held prisoner. The tone of these scenes is cold, bleak and forbidding, a deliberate contrast to the visual splendours of the earlier scenes in the Imperial palaces. There is yet another good performance from Alan Webb as the hypocritical Yurovsky, the family's jailer who welcomes them with seeming politeness while all the time plotting their murder on the orders of his superiors in Moscow. The final scene when Nicholas, Alexandra, their children and their servants are gunned down by Yurovsky and his men is unbearably poignant. A fitting end to this excellent film. 8/10
Perhaps the greatest exponent of the modern epic was David Lean, the director of "Bridge on the River Kwai", "Lawrence of Arabia", "Dr Zhivago", and "Ryan's Daughter". He also attempted to make "A Passage to India" in a similar style, although it is a style not really suited to Forster's novel. It may have been the success of "Dr Zhivago" which persuaded the makers of this film to try another epic with a Russian theme, although this time based upon fact rather than a work of fiction. It tells the story of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, and his wife Alexandra. Although it is a lengthy film, around three hours in length, it does not tell the story of their courtship (which might have made an interesting film in itself, given Nicholas's father's opposition to Alexandra as a daughter-in-law), nor of the early years of their marriage. It begins around 1904, the time of Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and of the birth of the couple's only son, Alexis.
Nicholas was a strange and contradictory character. In his public life he was determined to defend Russia's autocratic system of government, even though his weak and vacillating personality made him an unlikely and unsuitable autocrat. In private, however, he was a kindly man, deeply in love with his wife and a loving father to his children. (Similar contradictions can be seen in the characters of two other monarchs who fell victims to revolutions, Charles I of England and Louis XVI of France). Alexandra, however beloved she may have been by her husband and family, was never popular with the Russian people. This was partly due to her German background (the Germans, for political reasons, were often disliked in Russia at this period), partly because she was seen as cold and aloof and partly because she had fallen under the influence of the mystic Rasputin, who was widely though incorrectly believed to be her lover.
Epics about turn-of-the-century royalty have not always been successful; "Mayerling", made a few years earlier about another doomed pair of royal lovers, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his mistress Marie Vetsera, was sumptuous to look at but otherwise uninteresting. "Nicholas and Alexandra", by contrast, is as visually attractive as the earlier film but a much better film all round. Whereas "Mayerling" featured two big-name stars, Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve, in the leading roles, Nicholas and Alexandra are played by two relatively unknown actors, Michael Jayston and Janet Suzman, and it is the unknowns who come off best. In the hands of Sharif and Deneuve Rudolf and Marie remain dull and inert, whereas Jayston (who bears a close resemblance to the late Tsar) and Suzman succeed in making their characters three-dimensional and well rounded, sympathetic despite their all-too-obvious flaws. There are some other excellent contributions from Tom Baker (the future Doctor Who) as Rasputin, here portrayed not as an outright villain but as a man possessed of a certain spirituality despite his own character weaknesses (such as a taste for strong drink and pretty women), from Michael Bryant as Lenin, played as an arrogant autocrat-in-the-making, and from Timothy West as the Imperial Family's loyal doctor.
After the Revolution of 1917 the Communists tried to portray their seizure of power as the inevitable result of ineluctable historical forces. In reality, the replacement of a bad system by a worse one was anything but inevitable. Although Tsarist autocracy was, by the early twentieth century, an anachronistic institution, and one that was probably unsustainable in the long run, many Russians still retained a certain affection for their "Batyushka", or Little Father, and the system might well have lasted much longer but for chance factors. We see Lenin and his comrades in their Zurich exile, lamenting the seeming indestructibility of the Russian monarchy and fearing that their own movement is doomed to failure. What sealed the doom of Tsarism and allowed the Communists their chance was the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and the poor performance of the Russian armies, leading to popular unrest to the fall of the regime in March 1917, and the final triumph of the Bolsheviks in November of that year after a brief, doomed attempt to create a liberal democracy. (John McEnery is very good as the idealistic Kerensky, leader of the democratic forces, whose idealism is frustrated first by the stubbornness of the Tsar and then by the ruthlessness of the Communists).
The most moving scenes in the film are the final ones, when the Romanovs are being held prisoner. The tone of these scenes is cold, bleak and forbidding, a deliberate contrast to the visual splendours of the earlier scenes in the Imperial palaces. There is yet another good performance from Alan Webb as the hypocritical Yurovsky, the family's jailer who welcomes them with seeming politeness while all the time plotting their murder on the orders of his superiors in Moscow. The final scene when Nicholas, Alexandra, their children and their servants are gunned down by Yurovsky and his men is unbearably poignant. A fitting end to this excellent film. 8/10