Gorky Park
With Russia in the news and “Gorky Park” out on Blu-Ray, it seems a good time to return to this 1983 thriller. It was made during a tense period of the Cold War, just eight years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, but no one knew or anticipated it at the time.
Based on a novel by Martin Cruz Smith, adapted by Dennis Potter and directed by Michael Apted, it’s the story of an honest Soviet cop (William Hurt) and his investigation into a triple homicide. Almost immediately, he sees traces of KGB involvement and tries to get off the case, but he keeps discovering disturbing details, such as the probable involvement of a sleazy American businessman (Lee Marvin).
What’s interesting about revisiting the film today is that the elements that engaged people most at the time — the thriller plot and the glimpse into Soviet life — maintain hardly any fascination. But the love story — what might have been regarded at the time as the obligatory “romantic interest” — stands out as something of lasting appeal. Over the course of the investigation, the cop meets and gradually falls in love with a mysterious woman (played by the Polish actress Joanna Pacula), who is desperate to get out of the Soviet Union. This relationship becomes a matter of life-and-death consequence.
The emotions are towering, even as the story surrounding them becomes a bit convoluted and who-cares. There’s a sex scene about two thirds in that is interesting in that it’s not like the usual sex as depicted in American movies. It’s a little clumsy. They look like real people fumbling around. The scene is not meant to titillate but to reveal character. Its effect is spoiled somewhat by the late James Horner’s accompanying soundtrack, which is too conventionally sentimental.
Indeed, throughout the film, the acting and the direction keep revealing something unusual and powerful happening in the lives of these two lovers, while the soundtrack tries to convince us that this is just romantic business as usual. Nonetheless, Pacula steals the film by showing her character’s fierce desire to be free, a fierceness that’s more intense than noble, that’s raw and has a touch of ugliness about it.