The potential to delve into the mysterious Red Army hockey system had me excited to see this movie. Some of the footage, some of the interviews were awesome. It's what was blatantly overlooked or ignored in the documentary that had me feeling angry when I left the theatre. I felt that the the interviewer, Gabe Polsky, had the interview style equal to that of a "punk kid", with a blatant lack of interview skills or savvy to deal with extremely shy and introverted products of the Soviet system. His questioning was awkward, sometimes disrespectful, and even in the matter of someone like Kasatonov, oddly "compliant". (Why DIDN'T he stick up for Fetisov?!). There were no interviews with Makarov, Tikhonov, Mogilny. And there were so many others who could have been spoken to. I suspect they sized up Gabe and thought he was a schmuck and didn't want to talk to him.
Fetisov left a lot unanswered...or did Gabe not know how to speak to him? There's got to be more to the story of the his transitions to the NHL, the Cups that he won with Detroit. Did he eventually win the acceptance of his western teammates? Perhaps we could HEAR from any of them? How about an interview with Steve Yzerman? He would have much to tell, I would think, about the coming of the Russians to the Wings. Then there had to be a story as to why he went back to Russia after Perestroika. And why was the tragic story of Konstantinov not addressed? What about the perspective of other NHLers?
The Icing on the Cake was the depiction of today's Russian stars perceived lack of patriotism for their country....depicted by OVECHKIN shooting at nesting dolls of SOUP? Are you freaking kidding me???? Ovechkin was the FIRST Russian to say he was playing in SOCHI "no matter what" before the NHL had even given the go ahead for the pros to go over.
An Oscar nominee??? You've got to be kidding me. It came off as student film at best.
Fetisov left a lot unanswered...or did Gabe not know how to speak to him? There's got to be more to the story of the his transitions to the NHL, the Cups that he won with Detroit. Did he eventually win the acceptance of his western teammates? Perhaps we could HEAR from any of them? How about an interview with Steve Yzerman? He would have much to tell, I would think, about the coming of the Russians to the Wings. Then there had to be a story as to why he went back to Russia after Perestroika. And why was the tragic story of Konstantinov not addressed? What about the perspective of other NHLers?
The Icing on the Cake was the depiction of today's Russian stars perceived lack of patriotism for their country....depicted by OVECHKIN shooting at nesting dolls of SOUP? Are you freaking kidding me???? Ovechkin was the FIRST Russian to say he was playing in SOCHI "no matter what" before the NHL had even given the go ahead for the pros to go over.
An Oscar nominee??? You've got to be kidding me. It came off as student film at best.