GULAG

US, 1985, 130 minutes, Colour.
David Keith, Malcolm Mc Dowell, David Suchet, Warren Clarke, John Mc Enery.
Directed by Roger Young.

Gulag is a film, about US- USSR relationships in the '80s. During the Reagan administration, attitudes towards the Soviet Union were far more suspicious than earlier and this was reflected in films ranging from Red Dawn and Invasion USA, with Russian invasions of America; White Nights with Mikhail Baryshnikov wanting to escape from Russia. This film focuses on an athlete who naively offers to help get a message to the West and is arrested and sent to a concentration camp. David Keith is at home with this role. In the Gulag he meets a disillusioned English spy played, tvpicallv, by Malcolm Mc Dowall. The film highlights life in the Gulag - and then turns into a desperate escape film.

The film is interesting and entertaining to watch - but received cool comment from critics in the light of the ideological conflicts manifested in films at the time. Direction is by Roger Young who made such action films as Tom Selleck's Lasseter.

1. An action film of the '80s? American- Russian relationships? Politics? Propaganda? The human story? The prison and escape story? Triumph?

2. The atmosphere of the Soviet Union, Moscow, Siberia, the Gulags? Snow and ice? (The Elmer Bernstein atmospheric score?)

3. The credibility of the screenplay, the probability of such events? Facts? International terrorism? Melodrama and political stances?

4. Mickey Almon and his experience, sports, television commentator? The memories of the Americans not going to the 1980 Moscow Games? His life in Russia, being a celebrity? His wife? The naive American, his sympathetic listening to the Russians with problems, his agreeing to help?

5. The set-up, Mickey's motives, his naivety, the astuteness of the Russians for the set-up? Mickey's arrest, being charged, imprisonment and treatment? Hopes? The deals? sentence to Siberia?

6. The video of the confession? The train ride and its length, discomfort, oppressiveness? The vastness of Siberia? Climate, distances? Meeting the prisoners, the American uncomfortable with this kind of treatment? The advice from the Prisoners? Having to cope?

7. The physical environment of the Gulag itself? Psychological? The entry, the humiliation, the stripping, the clothes, the work, the routine, minimum food? Suffering? The parcels for Mickey - and their stopping, indicating his wife had thought he had died? The encounter with the Englishman and his cynicism?

8. The growing dissatisfaction, the plan to escape? The magic devices? The plan to enlist the friends in the other part of the camp? The transfer? The train? Tension? The journey, the timing, the escape? nooker and his leg? The decision of the other two to survive?, His supplying food for them? The crossing of the border?

9. The sketch of the Englishman; his experience, espionage, arrest, sentence, cynicism? His wariness, helping? His breaking down and pleading to escape? Participation in the escape?

10. Hooker and his help? His giving himself for the others? range of prisoners, the interactions, friendships, suspicions? Help and advice?

11. How successful was the film as drama? Character study? Propaganda? The attitudes of the US and the USSR towards each other in the '80's?