Stalin is a 1992 American political drama television film starring Robert Duvall as Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Produced by HBO Pictures and directed by Ivan Passer, it tells the story of Stalin's rise to power until his death and spans the period from 1917 to 1953. Owing to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika, producer Mark Carliner was able to receive permission to film in the Kremlin, becoming the first feature film to do so. The film premiered on HBO on November 21, 1992.
Filming was done in Budapest and the Soviet Union with extraordinary access to Soviet historic sites in the weeks before its dissolution. Although the film was almost entirely shot on location and producer Mark Carliner insisted that the film "reflect the truth", several scholars and historians commented that the film focused less on history and more on Stalin's character. This was seen as a flaw by many film critics, while still praising Robert Duvall's performance as Stalin. Julia Ormond's portrayal of Nadezhda Alliluyeva and Vilmos Zsigmond's camera work were also singled out for praise.
The film received several accolades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards (including Outstanding Made for Television Movie) and three Golden Globe Awards.
Synopsis Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Joseph Stalin, recounts her father returning from his Siberian exile to enlist in World War I, but being rejected for service. Stalin continues to fight against the tsar, and in 1917, stands at the train platform with his comrades awaiting the return of Vladimir Lenin. The October Revolution results in a new government being formed in Russia under the leadership of Lenin. The young Nadezhda Alliluyeva is hired as secretary for the new Bolshevik leaders. She admires Stalin's exploits during the revolution and marries him.
Stalin is resolute and ruthless, having several officers murdered, which prompts Leon Trotsky to complain to Lenin. To the intellectual Trotsky's displeasure, Lenin defends Stalin and his methods. A power struggle develops between him and Stalin over Lenin's legacy. When Lenin suffers a stroke, Stalin uses every opportunity to expel Trotsky and position himself as his successor. He surrounds himself with loyal companions, such as Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev. After Lenin's death, Stalin becomes the new ruler of the Soviet Union. As one of his first acts, he exiles Trotsky from the country.
Stalin begins dekulakization and crushes all resistance with the secret police which undergoes several internal purges, eventually being headed by Lavrentiy Beria. When Stalin's son from his first marriage Yakov Dzhugashvili attempts suicide over his father's refusal to approve his marriage to a Jew, Nadezhda is struck by her husband's growing inhumanity and returns to her parents' home. She considers leaving him but fears for her parents' fates if she does so, eventually returning to Moscow. During her train journey through the country, Nadezhda sees many farmers being shot or deported and defies her husband at a boisterous celebration. Stalin chastises and deliberately humiliates her, causing Nadezhda to leave and commit suicide. Her loss leaves Stalin in silent grief and anger for "betraying" him. He pushes ahead with a massive industrialization of the Soviet Union with ever new large-scale projects in order to develop the country into a world power.
Resistance to Stalin begins building up in Leningrad, spurred by the local official Sergei Kirov. Stalin sees him as a competitor and successfully eliminates him. After the assassination, he uses show trials to stage the Great Purge, killing and imprisoning many of his critics and former allies, who are forced to denounce each other to save themselves. Nikolai Bukharin notes the growing darkness over the country and expresses doubt about the legitimacy of the trials. Amongst those eventually killed are Bukharin himself, Sergo Ordzhonikidze (Stalin's close friend), Zinoviev, and Kamenev.
Stalin watches the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, admiring Hitler's will to get what he wants. He adamantly refuses to believe that Hitler will invade the Soviet Union and is shocked when it happens in June 1941. After Stalin has digested the shock, he prepares a counter-offensive, vowing not to surrender. His son, now an artillery officer, is captured by the Germans, who Stalin denies knowledge of. After the victory over Germany, Stalin withdraws more and more from the public eye and sees only conspiracies even amongst his inner circle. His only regret on his deathbed remains Nadezhda's suicide.
Svetlana Alliluyeva visits her father's body lying in state, while the film notes that Stalin's crimes caused the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens.
Cast
Robert Duvall as Joseph Stalin Julia Ormond as Nadezhda Alliluyeva Maximilian Schell as Vladimir Lenin Jeroen Krabbé as Nikolai Bukharin Joan Plowright as Olga Alliluyeva Frank Finlay as Sergei Alliluyev Daniel Massey as Leon Trotsky András Bálint as Grigory Zinoviev Emil Wolk as Lev Kamenev Roshan Seth as Lavrentiy Beria Mátyás Usztics as Nikolai Yezhov John Bowe as Kliment Voroshilov Jim Carter as Sergo Ordzhonikidze Murray Ewan as Nikita Khrushchev Stella Gonet as Zinaida Pavlutskaya Ordzhonikidze Elena Seropova as Nino Beria Colin Jeavons as Genrikh Yagoda Miriam Margolyes as Nadezhda Krupskaya Kevin McNally as Sergei Kirov Clive Merrison as Vyacheslav Molotov Lisa Orgolini as Anya Larina Ravil Isyanov as Yakov Dzhugashvili Joanna Roth as Svetlana Alliluyeva Aleksandr Feklistov as Leonid Nikolaev Stanislav Strelkov as Vasily Stalin Vsevolod Larionov as Dr. Lukomsky Oleg Tabakov as Dr. Vinogradov (credited as Oleg Tobakov) Levan Uchaneishvili as Lazar Kaganovich
Background Inspiration The idea of a film about Stalin occurred during an American Broadcasting Company (ABC) broadcast of the TV film Disaster at Silo 7 produced by Mark Carliner, which was seen by a member of an official Russian delegation during their stay in the United States. Enthusiastic about the anti-nuclear topic, she invited Carliner to Russia for several seminars and demonstrations. When Carliner visited the country, the film was broadcast on Russian television and well received. This later enabled Carliner to obtain filming permits for original locations.
Carliner had studied Russian history at Princeton University, and credits his Russian heritage for his motivation to film the movie. He presented the project to ABC and was rejected on the grounds that it was "too expensive and too risky". Only the chairman of the cable channel Home Box Office (HBO) Michael J. Fuchs, who had considered making a film about Stalin, agreed to take on the project. It took two more years of research with the assistance of Soviet officials specialising in Stalin's era to access to archives and historical recordings, to write the script.
In July 1991, the project was presented as "the first honest, very personal reckoning with the controversial, dictatorial godfather of the Soviet Union". Carliner emphasized that it would not only be a historical biography, but also a gangster film. According to various sources, a production budget of between 9.5 million and 10 million US dollars was allocated for the film.
Casting and director According to Carliner, Al Pacino was among several actors who expressed an interest in the lead, which eventually went to Robert Duvall. Duvall had turned down the offer to play Stalin in Andrei Konchalovsky's feature film The Inner Circle three months earlier, which is said to have been due to different salary expectations. When Duvall was offered the lead by Carliner, he agreed to take up the role. Carliner noted that Duvall was not his first choice, as his body constitution was more similar to Lenin's.
Duvall was keen to have Czech director Ivan Passer direct and fought for his appointment. Although the producers didn't like it, Passer was eventually hired very late into the project. Having fled his native country during the Prague Spring, Passer had a special relationship with the project.
Makeup
To recreate Stalin's likeness on Duvall, make-up specialist and Oscar winner Stephan Dupuis was hired. He faced the challenge of transforming Duvall's blue eyes, which are deep-set and soft-looking, his bald head, and small nose into Stalin's coarse face, dark skin, and brown, slightly Mongolian eyes. To do this, he studied photos of both men to determine the differences in facial contours. He drove to Duvall's ranch, made an impression of his face, and then made a clay mask from it at home. Taking into account the different parts of the skin, the right colours, wig, nasal prosthesis, false eyebrows and moustache, he eventually accomplished the task. The final product was completed only a week before shooting began. A mobile studio was used during filming in Russia to create the masks.
Pre-production On the eve of August 18, 1991, Passer and Carliner were in Moscow looking for suitable locations. They stayed at the Oktyabrskaya Hotel, which turned out to be the main headquarters of the opposition that initiated the August coup in Moscow the next morning. When the military took up positions around the Kremlin, they immediately fled Russia for Hungary, fearing being mistakened for enemy CIA agents. Arriving in Budapest, Carliner believed that "two years of work to get the filming permits went up in smoke" and the film could not be made. Passer suggested shooting the film in Budapest instead. The next day, Leonid Vereshchagin, a cultural adviser to the Russian government, called and said that the coup would be over in about ten days. He urged Carliner to shoot in Russia at all costs. Well aware of the propaganda value that could be made of the film against opposition critics, the filmmakers were promised all support and invited back to Moscow three days after the attempted coup was over. Several interior scenes were shot in Hungary, before the full film crew returned to Moscow about a month later. On November 6, Carliner returned with Schell, the actor for Lenin.
Script In 1991, Carliner hired screenwriter Paul Jarrico to revise Paul Monash's screenplay. Jarrico had joined the American Communist Party in 1939 and been blacklisted for his political views during the McCarthy era. Carliner hoped that Jarrico would have a "unique connection to the material" and "benefit the project from his revisions". Jarrico was to receive a fee of $30,000 for the revisions and an additional $10,000 for a final review if required.
Jarrico cut 26 pages from Monash's script, which was about four hours long. He rewrote the beginning and fundamentally changed the scenes in which fears of Sergei Kirov's assassination are expressed. Nikolai Bukharin's role was expanded and his speech against forced collectivization extended, in addition to a call for a return to Leninism. He also added two scenes where Stalin discusses the usefulness of a treaty with Germany with his diplomat Maxim Litvinov, refusing to believe that Germany would attack the Soviet Union. Monash disliked the changes, and after several meetings in September 1991, HBO opt not to request for a final review and declined payment. Having worked three days past the deadline and feeling cheated out of $13,000, Jarrico contacted the Writers Guild of America's legal department to arbitrate the dispute. After turning down $5,000 and $7,000, he accepted the third offer of $8,000, along with additional payments into his pension and health plans. Most of Jarrico's scenes were removed from the script.
The actors only received the full script two weeks before shooting began.
Character development Robert Duvall as Joseph Stalin