In "Red Army," a US documentary by Gabe Polsky, former Soviet hockey players who formed the famous Great Five (or Russian Five, as it was known abroad) hockey unit look back at their difficult but glorious history as hockey greats in the Soviet Union's Red Army (CSKA) team, the Soviet national team, and later in the NHL.
The film premiered in Russia on Thursday with a considerably wider release than the one it received in the United States, with the director hoping that the audience whose history the film chronicles appreciates it. It tells the story largely through the eyes of Vyacheslav "Slava" Fetisov, who is the focus of the film.
The film, however, was definitely made for US viewers, with opening montages of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (who died and was officially discredited before Fetisov was born) and interviewees saying that hockey was the focal point of the Soviet Union's competition with the West.
It also looks at the flaws of the Soviet system through the same scope, with the struggles the team faced at the hands of their coach Viktor Tikhonov, whom it gave a tough treatment. The difficulties the players faced, however, also formed their true friendship outside the rink.
An emotional portrayal of Fetisov watching the Soviet national team's 4-3 defeat at the 1980 Winter Olympics is shown as a difficult time for him, much more so when Tikhonov amped up their training regimen and his own personal attitude toward them.
The film also looks at the Soviet collapse through the scope of the players' attempts to leave the country to play for the NHL, which Tikhonov, and even Soviet Defense Minister at the time Dmitry Yazov take efforts to prevent. Polsky parallels this with the Soviet collapse, and the 1991 failed putsch which Yazov took part in, but was stopped by protesting Muscovites.
Life in the US is shown as not so easy for the Soviet players, with troubles and alienation on and off the ice, until they reunite to again form the Russian Five in the Detroit Red Wings, which they take to win the Stanley Cup.
There is a separate happy ending (which feels more like an epilogue) for Fetisov, who returns to Russia to become a politician, which the film looks at in terms of his pride for Russia, culminating with the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The least hockey-oriented part of the film, it does however shift the focus from simply a story of the players with a historical backdrop to a history of the country which some left and others came back to, either to enter politics, as Fetisov did, or coaching a new generation of hockey players.
In all, "Red Army" may have divided opinions in Russia, with some critics berating the film's historical narrative while it received near-universal acclaim abroad. However, its look at sports greats as they won medals for their country but also battled its system, and their turbulent but eventually successful lives without it, forms an interesting look at the history of Russia through its hockey.
