MOVIE OVERVIEW
When you strip Red Army down to the basics, it is a documentary that intends to educate a western audience on the Russian hockey culture that was present during the build-up of the Cold War. The director, Gabe Polsky, sets out to interview a handful of key characters that experienced the Soviet obsession with hockey (and athletics in general) first hand. Focusing on Slava Fetisov, the audience gets to watch his growth as a hockey player and human being in a system that was more concerned with communist propaganda than the joy of the game.
THE GOOD
Documentaries are renowned for keeping to a more simplistic approach of filmmaking: present the information in an efficient manner without any distractions. Red Army strayed away from this model of presentation and went above and beyond in the visual department. The merging of highly detailed art, advanced effects, and intense music served to create an atmosphere in the theatre that drew you in.
The documentary did an excellent job of showing how the Soviet Union treated hockey both as a sport and as a weapon against the western world, making the film hold a distinct appeal to completely different preferences. If you’re a fan of politics or hockey, you will enjoy Red Army.
THE BAD
There were often silences and lapses in content that came across as rather awkward. These moments rarely added perspective to what the documentary was trying to express. The best example of this was the strained relationship between Fetisov and his then-best friend Kasatonov that was brought up about midway through the documentary. What could potentially add a mystery and something to think about fell short and was instead replaced with an overbearing sense of, “Why was this included?”