Gorky Park (1983)

Very Cool!!!

Touches You

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

One of the three bodies in Gorky Park is identified as an American because he had a tooth root filled with guttta percha. The pathologist says only American dentists use gutta percha. Nonsense. As a dental student in Glasgow in the early sixties we were taught to use it and it was probably being used routinely for many years before that all over Europe but certainly in the UK. So, as an early significant plot point it is rubbish.

When three bodies, two men and a woman, are discovered in Moscow's Gorky Park with their faces and other identifying features removed the case is given to Militia inspector Arkady Renko. He is immediately concerned as the KGB have taken an interest in the case but declined his suggestion that they should take over the investigation. The only clues Renko has are the fact that one of the dead had dental work done in the United States, strongly suggesting he was a foreigner, and the woman was wearing ice-skates that had been reported stolen Irina Asanova, a worker on a film set. Hoping to identify the bodies Renko takes two of the heads to Professor Andreev so that he can reconstruct their faces. Fairly early on Renko is introduced to American Furrier Jack Osbourne; a name that keeps cropping up but what could he have to do with the dead bodies? He also crosses paths with another American; William Kirwill, an NYPD detective, who is looking for his missing brother and doesn't trust any agents of the Soviet state.When this film was made the idea of setting a film in Moscow with characters, including the protagonist, who were primarily Russian was almost unthinkable even if it was to feature Western actors and be filmed in Finland. Even though Russia isn't seen as an exotic location these days the film is as good as ever. There is an intriguing central mystery as who the people were killed is as important as who did it. There is also a good sense of paranoia, possibly well founded, as it appears that the KGB are taking a very close interest in Renko. The cast does a really impressive job; William Hurt is great as Renko and Lee Marvin manages to be both menacing and jovial as Osbourne. Brian Dennehy and Joanna Pacula also impress as William Kirwill and Irena. The rest of the cast is made up of familiar British actors including Michael Elphick, Richard Griffiths, Ian McDiarmid and Alexei Sayle to name just a few. While this is very much a drama there are some moments of humour; I particularly laughed at Alexei Sayle's used car salesman/KGB informer. Director Michael Apted nicely captured the sense of paranoia and desire to escape a closed society as well as creating a cold atmosphere of the Russian winter. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of detective dramas looking for something a bit different.

„Gorky Park " is a crime thriller set in Soviet Union . The main hero is Russian police officer who tries to solve a mystery involving three dead people , who were murdered in Moscow's Gorky Park . The film is set during the twilight years of the old Soviet Union, the brief interlude between the death of Leonid Brezhnev (an event referred to in the script) and the rise of the liberal, reforming Mikhail Gorbachev. The atmosphere of Soviet Union is a one full of cynicism and corruption. I won't spoil the movie by saying that Renko's ( main hero of the movie played by William Hurt ) investigation will lead him to people at the top of Soviet Establishment.The movie may have a Russian hero , but is far from being pro-Soviet. The Soviet system here is soulless and ruthless . It's a hell on Earth for decent people . The movie couldn't been made in Soviet Union , so Helsinki play the part of Moscow. Director Michael Apted and cinematographer Ralf Bode were still able to give us a cold, bleak atmosphere of the USRR."Gorky Park " is a example of 80's neo-noir movie . This genre is obviously inspired by Humprey Bogart movies. It includes several common features that must appear in this kind of movie :-a lonely hero who is outwardly unemotional , but inwardly feels everything very deeply.He acts like a cynical asshole , but he believes in justice . He will risk his life for the cause he believes in. -a femme fatale who is also main hero's love interest . A woman who isn't either good or bad . -a corrupted system -a powerful villain who is connected to the Establishment -bittersweet conclusionWilliam Hurt is a great choice for the main hero , because he knows how to play men who find it difficult to express their feelings . Everything you need to know is written on his face. He doesn't have to shout or gesticulate to show the audience the true depths of his soul. Equally great is Joanna Pacula who plays the main female character in the movie. She was nominated for Golden Globe for her performance. It isn't surprising , because she really makes the audience care for Irina – a woman trying desperately to get out of USRR. Too bad that after this something went wrong and she started to appear in rather bad movies ( with the exception of "Escape from Sobibor" ).The rest of the cast is also solid , especially Bryan Dennehy ( "Rambo : First blood" ) and Lee Marvin ( " Dirty dozen") . The screenplay from Dennis Potter is intelligent. The music made by James Horner is great , even if a little too loud and a rip-off "48 hours". The movie doesn't try to shock you withviolence or plot twists , but rather allows you to enjoy watching as all the puzzles start to make sense.This is one of the better thrillers of the 80's. If you're looking for neo-noir movie you should also watch "Body heat "(also with William Hurt) and "No mercy" (with Richard Gere and Kim Basinger). "Gorky Park " is a solid thriller that made me cry at the end of the movie . It holds up even better on re-watch . I give it 8/10.

**SPOILERS** When three faceless bodies are found buried in the snow in Moscow's Gorky Park the city's police militia chief inspector Ankavy Renko, William Hurt, and his assistance Pasha, Michael Elphick, are immediately called on the scene. Things like this just don't happen in Moscow and the head of the city's police, Alexanderr Knox, wan't the killer or killers found before a panic breaks out among the population.Right away Renko realized that there was a lot more to this triple murder then what at first meets the eye. Why did the killer slice off his victims faces with surgical precision and even more surprising why did the dreaded KGB in the person of Maj. Pribluda, Rikki Fulton, take over the murder case which didn't seem to involve national security? Or did it! Renko gets his first break on this puzzling case when it's reported that one of the victims-a woman-ice skates was reported to have been stolen from Russian actress Irina Asanova, Joanna Pacula, about a week before she was found murdered and mutilated in Gorky Park! That person is later identified as being Valerya Davidova, Marjaha Nissinen, who just happened to have attended the same collage with Irina as well as being her best friend! It also comes out that the other two bodies found at the murder site were that of Kostia Borodin, Heikki Leppanen, and American tourist James Kirwill, Jukka Hirvikangas, who were unloved in smuggling desperate Russian citizens out of the Soviet Union. It's James' brother a detective in the NYPD William Kirwill, Brian Dennehy, who's now in Moscow looking to find his murderer and bring him to justice! This in fact complicates things even more then they already are for the Moscow Police with Kirwill not willing to cooperating with them but going on his own in finding his brother's killer. In putting all the pieces together Renko soon finds out that the three murder victims as well as the terrified, in what would happen to her if she talks, Irina are all linked together to one person: American successful businessman and entrepreneur Jack Osborne, Lee Marvin!Osborne it soon comes out has an inside track with higher ups in both the KGB and Moscow City Government and is in fact untouchable from the law even in the case of a multiple murder that he may very well have committed! As a by now obsessed Renko digs up more evidence on Osborne his life becomes endangered in that he's not just dealing with Osborne but top KGB officials as well as those in his own department, the Moscow Police Milita, who will go as far as murder to keep him from finding out the truth! A truth so shockingly mind boggling that if Osborne succeeds with what he's, and his renegade KGB and Moscow Police accomplices, attempting to do it can lead to the collapse of a major part of the Soviet economy that the Soviet Union totally monopolizes!Unusual movie about Soviet Police procedure that doesn't have people being tortured and beating into giving written confessions to crimes that they didn't commit. In fact the way that Moscow Police Milita Chief Investigator Renko goes about his business in uncovering a baffling mass murder is so professional and calculating that even many US & Western Europe police department can learn from it. ***SPOILERS*** The movie ends in a OK Corral style shoot-out in the frozen woods outside Stockholm Sweden-not Moscow-where Osborne planned to not only make his escape but knock off everyone, including his accomplices in crime, who could connect him not only to the Gorky Park murders but to what his real motives were really all about: Destroying a major part of the Russian economy by making himself filthy rich off it. Both William Hurt and newcomer Joanna Pacula as Ankady Renko & Irina Asanova give the film, that in many cases is hard to follow, the zip and tension that it needs to keep its audiences full attention even during the scenes when it gets overly boring. As for Lee Marvin as the mysterious Jack Osborne his weather beaten and wrinkled face, especially in his close-up scenes, looked like a road-map to a graveyard which his hard living and drinking lifestyles lead him into some four years later.