Gorky Park Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Gorky Park Blu-ray Movie Review

A Detective Above All Else

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 27, 2014

Gorky Park, in both the original novel by Martin Cruz Smith and the movie adaptation scripted by the legendary Dennis Potter (Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective), introduced one of the most intriguing fictional detectives of the last half century: Chief Investigator Arkady Renko of the Moscow police force in the former Soviet Union. Like all great detectives, Renko is committed to truth and justice, but he has to pursue them in a system that owes its very existence to secrecy, lies and concealment. This fundamental conflict runs through all of Renko's cases, along with a conflict-ridden family history, including a famous general of a father who disapproved of his son's choice to pursue a career in law enforcement.

The first of eight Renko novels, Gorky Park, became an international bestseller in 1981. The film was released two years later by the now-defunct Orion Pictures. Director Michael Apted may have directed a Bond film (The World Is Not Enough), but, as he says in the 2014 interview included on this Blu-ray edition, he is a documentary filmmaker at heart, whose most enduring work may turn out to be the Up Series biographies begun in 1964, of which the most recent installment is 56 Up. When Apted was denied permission to film in the Soviet Union (which claimed that no crime existed in its perfect society), he and his production designer did their best to recreate Russia in Finland and Moscow in Helsinki, but Apted always felt frustrated that he wasn't able to show the "real" Moscow.

Still, those limitations may have worked in Gorky Park's favor over the long run. Later films from The Russia House (1990) to Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol have shown us such sights as the Kremlin and Red Square often enough that the cinematic novelty has worn off. Gorky Park is about the work of a meticulous, thoughtful cop, who pores over files and follows leads into parts of town that are not featured in the guidebook. The generic quality of the film's locations suits both the subject matter and the film's hero, who describes himself as "a plodding investigator, no style". Of course, the same was true of Lieutenant Columbo, and criminals never got past him either.

Renko (William Hurt) and his reliable lieutenant, Pasha (Michael Elphick), have a case that they really don't want. In fact, Renko's friend, the chief pathologist (Henry Woolf) tells him so, while performing a post mortem the next morning. Three bodies have been found buried in the snow in Moscow's Gorky Park with all identifying features removed, including their faces. Everything about the case reeks of professional intrigue, including the fact that the KGB arrive on the scene almost as quickly as the police, led by Renko's personal nemesis, Major Pribluda (Rikki Fulton). It's as if Pribluda knew the bodies were there, and Renko would be all too happy to let Pribluda and his goons have the case so they can bury it again.

But Renko's boss and patron, Chief Prosecutor Iamskoy (Ian Bannen), urges him to continue investigating. Things are changing, says Iamskoy. The KGB is getting weaker, while the civilian authorities are gaining power. Iamskoy will back the Chief Investigator, wherever his inquiry may lead.

And Renko's inquiry does indeed lead to unexpected and perilous places. One of the victims wore ice skates belonging to a Siberian university student, Irina Asanova (Joanna Pacula), who was expelled for radical activities and now works as a seamstress for the movies. Not surprisingly, she is unwilling to talk to the police. But Irina can also be found in the company of a wealthy American businessman, Jack Osborne (Lee Marvin, who was ailing at the time, but you'd never know it from his confidently focused performance). Osborne is involved in the fur trade for prized Russian sables, and he is so well connected that he seems to glide easily through the highest levels of Soviet society. He's clearly a villain, but are his crimes purely economic? (He barely meets Renko before he's offering the policeman a bribe.)

Other mysterious characters hover around the edges of the investigation. One furtive figure turns out to be an American of Russian extraction named Kirwill (Brian Dennehy), who tails Renko for reasons unknown. Another is a used car dealer named Golodkin (British comedian Alexei Sayle), who has a few other businesses on the side. And there's the eccentric Prof. Andreev (Ian McDiarmid, best known as Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars prequels), who is strictly an academic but has a gift for reconstructing the faces of historical figures from archaeological evidence. Despite the professor's reluctance, Renko persuades him to undertake a painstaking facial reconstruction of two of the Gorky Park victims, with startling results. Meanwhile, shadowy assassins do their best to add to the body count, as someone tries to tie up loose ends. From the methods, Renko is certain the KGB is involved, but what are they covering up?

Apted effectively creates the paranoid atmosphere of a society in which anyone may be a spy or an informer. In groups of people, he will pick out someone who is staring at Renko, his men or anyone appearing to cooperate. Perhaps the person is curious; perhaps they are momentarily distracted; or perhaps they are preparing a report for a KGB handler. In this world, you never know, and much of the "plodding" investigator's success results from his ability to size up people, to separate the dissemblers from the trustworthy. The latter include Pasha and Renko's close friend, a lawyer named Anton (played by the late Richard Griffiths, best known as Harry Potter's unpleasant Uncle Vernon). If Renko doesn't always get it exactly right, it's because he has learned the hard way that sometimes one must make deals with the devil in order to achieve as much justice as possible in a system that routinely deducts justice from the equation.

Gorky Park Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kino Video has brought Gorky Park to Blu-ray in a serviceable but unremarkable presentation that at least conveys the feeling of constant cold and economic stagnation that production designer Paul Sylbert and cinematographer Ralf D. Bode (Dressed to Kill, Coal Miner's Daughter) worked hard to convey. The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray has been taken from a source with minor damage, consisting of occasional speckling and some fleeting scratches. Although the source does not appear to have been the original camera negative, detail is generally quite good, with a visible grain texture that becomes noticeably thick in some shots, probably as a result of lighting or film processing issues that could not be addressed digitally without heavy manipulation (which would raise other, more problematic issues). The whites are very good, which is crucial in a film where numerous key scenes occur against striking expanses of ice and snow. Black levels are also good, which suits several critical night scenes, including some where Renko is seated at his desk working late with only a desk lamp for illumination. (The darkness surrounding the lone investigator with only a small light guiding him is an obvious visual metaphor.)

The color palette is mostly drab and washed out, which is not a fault of the Blu-ray but an element of the film's visual design. This a society where everything is worn and old, and very little works. In the first conversation between Renko and Irina, she tells him about her boots that are split and useless, and when Anton loans Renko his gun, he warns the cop that it's the kind they issue to lawyers, which means it probably doesn't shoot straight. The American Osborne, by contrast, dresses in richly colored clothing that sets him apart from the Moscow citizenry, and leaders like Iamskoy have memberships at exclusive clubs, where the swimming pool is an inviting blue and the surroundings have warmth. These occasional exceptions further confirm that the dull colors of the regular homes, offices and street scenes are intentional.

Kino Video has stuffed this 129-minute film, with a few extras, onto a BD-25, resulting in an average bitrate of 18.93 Mbps. The studio has gotten away with this tight compression, probably because Gorky Park follows the pattern of many police procedurals and detective stories in having numerous scenes of conversation (though, thanks to the superior cast and Potter's excellent dialogue, they are far from dull). Apted stages the film's action scenes simply and effectively, and the bitrate surges as needed. At 72", I didn't observe any compression issues.

Gorky Park Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gorky Park was released in mono, which is presented on Blu-ray in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, with identical left and right front channels. The dialogue is clear (although Apted has said that Joanna Pacula's heavy Polish accent required substantial re-recording of her dialogue), and the essential sound effects work well enough, but this soundtrack relies on its score to do the sonic heavy lifting. James Horner's score is dramatic and suspenseful, and it may remind some listeners of his work in another atypical police procedural, 48 Hrs. The Blu-ray's track reproduces Horner's orchestral arrangements with broad dynamic range and deep bass extension, which ensures that is has the desired effect. I was more aware of its sweep and impact on this viewing than on any prior occasion. This is by far the best it has ever sounded on home video.

Gorky Park Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Gorky Park was previously released on DVD by MGM in 2000 with just a trailer. Kino has added an additional extra that, as far as I have been able to determine, has not been previously released in Region A:

• Director Michael Apted Interview (1080p; 1.78:1; 16:03): Interviewed in 2014 (although the copyright date on the featurette is mistakenly listed as 2004), Apted discusses preparing for the film by visiting the Soviet Union with his production team, only to be expelled after the authorities actually read the script. He comments on each of the major cast members and discusses his decision to have the Russian characters speak with English accents (thereby requiring Hurt to learn one), while the American characters would retain their native speech patterns. Unlike commentaries recorded long after the making of the film, where the participants often lapse into silence because they haven't seen their work for years, Apted had already revisited the film before being interviewed; so his memory was refreshed. As a result, the interview is far more informative than a commentary might have been.



• Trailer (1080p; 1.85:1; 2:21): I think this trailer gives away too much, and I recall another that revealed less, but this is also the same one included on MGM's DVD.

Gorky Park Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Soviet Union of Gorky Park may be gone, but from what we know of Vladimir Putin's Russia, many of its operating principles have survived. Besides, the figure of the honest cop bucking a corrupt system isn't a story unique to any one country. (See Serpico in the U.S. or George Gently in the U.K.) But Smith's novel and Apted's film captured a uniquely Soviet form of hypocrisy in which everyone knew, and even acknowledged, that the official version of things was a charade. Renko calls it "the gulf between what is said and what is done", and he is enough of an idealist to believe that he can narrow that gulf, if only by a little. Highly recommended as a film; the Blu-ray is good enough.