Opening with the birth of Alexis - the hemophiliac son of Nicholas II (the last Czar of Russia) and his wife Alexandra, this then traces the history of the Romanovs from that point until their eventual execution by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. As far as the big picture is concerned, this is reasonably accurate. All of the major events of those years are portrayed, so one gets a sense of the course of Russian history during the era. When we move into the details, the fictionalized material that's added in is believable enough for the most part. The viewer gets a feel for what life was like in Russia during this period, and the point is also made of how isolated the Royal Family was from the struggles of the average Russian family.
Having said that, I still thought this movie was lacking. Mostly, it lacked real and believable emotion. I didn't get a sense of passion from any of the cast. They performed their parts well enough. I could "buy" most of them in their roles. But the feeling was strangely absent, which made this very long (3+ hours) movie seem even longer, to be honest. I was somewhat surprised by the somewhat limited amount of time that was given to Rasputin - who in reality became a surprisingly influential figure in the Russian court, but I appreciated the scenes following the Czar's abdication. Somehow I was able to enter into what must have been the extremely humbling (and even humiliating) circumstances into which the Romanovs fell afterward - they, who had held absolute power over the Russian people as the successors to a dynasty that had ruled for 300 years, suddenly at the mercy of those who held them prisoner. The movie depicts them as very dignified in the circumstances, and the final scene is quite brutal, leaving one with feelings of sympathy for the family, and especially their children, who were surely not responsible for whatever evil their father may have been accused of.
This has plenty of weaknesses, but is still worth watching if only to get something of a "grand sweep" of the revolutionary era in Russian history.
Having said that, I still thought this movie was lacking. Mostly, it lacked real and believable emotion. I didn't get a sense of passion from any of the cast. They performed their parts well enough. I could "buy" most of them in their roles. But the feeling was strangely absent, which made this very long (3+ hours) movie seem even longer, to be honest. I was somewhat surprised by the somewhat limited amount of time that was given to Rasputin - who in reality became a surprisingly influential figure in the Russian court, but I appreciated the scenes following the Czar's abdication. Somehow I was able to enter into what must have been the extremely humbling (and even humiliating) circumstances into which the Romanovs fell afterward - they, who had held absolute power over the Russian people as the successors to a dynasty that had ruled for 300 years, suddenly at the mercy of those who held them prisoner. The movie depicts them as very dignified in the circumstances, and the final scene is quite brutal, leaving one with feelings of sympathy for the family, and especially their children, who were surely not responsible for whatever evil their father may have been accused of.
This has plenty of weaknesses, but is still worth watching if only to get something of a "grand sweep" of the revolutionary era in Russian history.