I watched this movie for the first time this weekend (on DVD). It's been troubling me ever since because I still don't know how I feel about the last Czar: flawed man trapped by circumstance or bumbling autocrat responsible for countless deaths, including his own family's??? The movie doesn't portray the last Romanovs as absolute heroes or absolute villains. And this, my friends, is the sign of a well-crafted historical epic!! I've read Robert K. Massie's book; while it is overwhelmingly historically detailed, I think some of the humanity of the characters is lost. That is where this movie excels: it reminds us that Nicholas, Alexandra, Lenin, Rasputin, etc. were flesh-and-blood and not mere historical paper-dolls. I'm not going to comment on the individual actors because this movie is great because of the sum of its parts. The bottom line: I'm still haunted by this movie and I'm deeply affected by the tragedy of errors which affected so many people during this time. I've read many books on the Russian Revolution, but I've never felt the human tragedy as much as when I watched this movie. It may not be the most conventional movie, but it's worth spending the time to get through it.
