'Red Army' a local filmmaker's look at Soviet hockey
<b>Mini-review: 'Red Army'</b>
The Soviet Union created the Red Army hockey team in the 1950s, not just to win games, but to prove communism to be a superior political system to the democracies of the West during the Cold War.
Except for a slight kink in 1980 when team USA trounced the Soviets, the Red Army consistently ruled the rink around the world.
Given Russia's recent political muscle-flexing over Ukraine and other issues, the absorbing history of the team bursts with political relevance in "Red Army," a documentary directed, written and produced by Emmy Award-winning Glencoe native Gabe Polsky, the son of Soviet immigrants.
In a fleet 85 minutes, Polsky combines purposeful archival footage, interviews with the original players and commentaries from journalists and experts in analyzing the effectiveness of using the hockey team as part of the expansive Soviet propaganda machine.
Polsky swiftly gives us the back story of the team, mostly inspired by influential Russian coach Anatoly Tarasov, who approached hockey as a game of chess executed with an emphasis on teamwork and artistic flair.
We also learn about the trying conditions the Soviet athletes endured to be members of the elite national team, required to train 11 months of the year with four practices per day.
The players didn't benefit personally all that much. (One recalls how three families lived in a single post-Stalin apartment with no running water or electricity.)
But they did become celebrities who still had to turn over their passports to Soviet authorities when they visited foreign countries - just to thwart potential defections. (Later, Red Army players actually played for American teams.)
Key to this documentary is Polsky's lengthy and revealing interview with Slava Fetisov, named the team's youngest captain by KGB-appointed coach Viktor Tikhonov, whom the teammates hated. (When Fetisov's father died, Tikhonov would not let him attend the funeral.)
"Red Army" is something of its own miracle on ice, given that Polsky's inexperience as an interviewer continually threatens to squelch his all-important confrontation with the now middle-aged Fetisov.
Polsky slow-pitches questions that seem tentative, hesitant and unsure, prompting Fetisov to chide him for wasting his time.
"You are used to doing nothing in America!" Fetisov says with disdain.
Polsky continuously asks good questions the wrong way, giving his confrontational subject every opportunity to evade responding.
(Instead of asking, "What do you think of Viktor Tikhonov?," Polsky says, "Can I ask you a question about Viktor Tikhonov?" to which the unpredictable Fetisov could easily answer, "No!")
Fortunately, Polsky's excellent knowledge of both the Soviets and hockey gave him the edge to score one for his movie.
"Red Army" opens at the Music Box and River East in Chicago, plus Renaissance Place in Highland Park. Rated PG. 85 minutes. ★ ★ ★ ½