Red Army 2014

     The Red Army is the hockey team from the Soviet Union.  Their story begins in the Cold War and the hockey team was unstoppable during this era.  The sport of hockey also paralleled the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.  The captain, Slava Fetisov relates the history of the team.  He started playing and working with a coach when he was ten years old.  Russian children would stand in line for hours to try out for the Soviet teams.  They practiced eleven months out of the year and their coach was nearly a dictator.  The team was about unity, each individual did not stand out as an individual player and there was the desire to win whatever the cost.  KGB agents traveled with the team and defection was not contemplated by the players.  In later years, this changed and about 500 players were recruited for the NHL.

     Viacheslav Festisov calls the shots for this film and he doesn’t start to talk until he is finished with his own business.  He definitely lets the director know he’s in charge. In the beginning of his career, he was a national hero and then he became a political enemy when he stopped playing.  Income from playing on the hockey team did elevate the living standards for their families but nothing like the wealthy players on the teams of other countries.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie) (hockey fans will probably give a higher rating?)

84 min, Doc directed by Gabe Polsky with Viacheslav Fetisov, Scotty Bowman, Mark Deakins, Anatoli Karpov, Alexei Kasatonov, Ken Kurtis, Felix Nechepore, Vladimir Pozner, Tatiana Tarasova, Vladislav Tretiak.

Note:  Imdb 7.7 out of 10, 67% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 4*.