I have no idea what the filmmakers were assuming. That Decembrist revolt is widely known to moviegoers, or that omitting the bulk of the details, cramming everything into two hours, and just bombarding the viewer with narration, time skips, and name inserts is going to immediately clue everyone in as to who is who, what they wanted, or even what side they are on. Or maybe they already knew that they would be commissioned to make a miniseries for TV out of what was left on the cutting floor.
Oh, would you look at that? The series came out in 2022.
Despite the fact that the standoff and subsequent suppression of the crowd are masterfully done, beautifully blending CGI and practical effects, the movie is lacking in everything else. Everyone besides Nicolas I is either bland or a caricature. Muravyov-Apostol gets a shoehorned, fictional love story that goes nowhere, adds nothing, and makes it all feel like studio encroachment because they knew that this was the only way they could make you root for the guy. The same mass appeal can be implied by a soundtrack featuring unfitting edits of rock music.
Obviously, the most prevalent topic of discussion is whether this movie is state-funded propaganda appealing to the masses to not "revolt," as inferred by all-knowing Russian liberals. What history books have they been smoking? If Kravchuk wanted, they could've leaned in so many directions to absolutely besmirch these people. From outlining what their actual bloody plan was on how to prevent counter-revolution to simply showing how Muravyov-Apostol tried to escape only to be stopped by his own soldiers angry at him for leading them to treason. If nothing else and truly almost nothing else is shown, the movie paints them as unscrupulous patriots and not as French-speaking, Voltaire-quoting, loathsome cowards who couldn't even shoot the tsar despite ample opportunity. They even presented Trubetskoy as not a miserable craven who just didn't want to come out, but as someone who thought he wouldn't need to because he saw Nicolas as weak, that he sees what direction the wind blows, and that he is going to fold any second. Which is so much more credit than even the Soviet interpretation of his action has ever given him.
