NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA (1971) *** It can't be an easy thing, portraying the tsar as such a sympathetic character. Michael Jayston does it by playing up the very real incompetence factor, and through sympathetic responses to James Goldman's best lines. Janet Suzman is even better, raising the very real question of whether (first choice) Vanessa Redgrave could have done any better. Suzman embodies a patrician elegance that assumes tragic proportion in falling beneath the vulgar herd, however oppressed that herd may be. Tom Baker is just as believable as Rasputin, and I have mainly admiration for whoever saw him and thought "Hey, he'll be great as Dr Who!" The entire cast is just tremendous, Lynne Frederick, Michael Bryant, Roderic Noble. Laurence Olivier is in it and he doesn't stand out, that's how good the cast is. It's not at all a flawless film, but close enough that the little things don't hurt. It helps to have a budget--Franklin Schaffner moves his troops amongst spectacularly beautiful sets and settings, many of which rush by in brief historical flashes. They don't worry much about getting into the internal tragedy of the Russian revolution, instead allowing you glimpses while demanding your attention to the personal tragedies of the royals. They look like a nice family, regardless of their politics. It's a more difficult point to make, but one that more cleanly emphasizes the essentially pacifist message, by evoking sympathy first for the guilty.
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