Red Penguins

Russia was a lawless place following the fall of communism. Gangsters carved up what remained of the economy; and westerners flooded in, also looking for a quick buck, both exploiting the lack of order, but also threatened by it. The owners of an American ice hockey team decided to opportunistically buy a Russian one, and sent over a young huckster to market it; he had the time of his life, doing all sorts of things he could never have got away with in America. But when the money started to flow, the mafia wanted it. 'Red Penguins' tells the story, with interviews with most of the participants. It's entertaining, though also a disturbing tale. Fundamentally, the documentary is centred on its personalities: it gives us a flavour of the times, more than it does a detailed explanation. It's conclusion, showing us pictures of a drunken Boris Yeltsin, makes the point figuratively rather than logically. Today there is order in Russia once more, albeit not in the happiest of ways. Some of those who stole and got their money out are now regarded as perfectly acceptable members of the global elite. That's capitalism, folks!

I spent those same years in PR China as a young rep for a US Engineering firm, so this elicits a bit a sense of sympathetic nostalgia for the expat adventure. I have stories, but the difference is that I'm not Steve Warshaw. While the venture eventually failed, clearly Steve left a mark on the country, his creative boundary pushing facilitated by lack of rules in the new Russia. The apparent latitude that he was allowed (took?) by the Baldwin / the home office was amazing and amusing. Where were the corporate lawyers? Seems like one of those unique intersections of time and place that we will not see again and anyone who enjoys stories that revolve around cultural clashes, with a bonus dash of intrigue, hockey fan or not, will not go wrong by giving this a watch.

My American friends may take offense about the title I chose for this review, but they have to face the fact: the American investors (including the mighty Disney empire, would could only plead plausible deniability) were taken out to the cleaners by a bunch of bankrupt Russian mobsters. Back in the early 1990s, moments after the fall of the Berlin wall and the demise of the USSR, the US-based Penguins NHL franchise bought a 50% stake in what they believed was the ownership of the most successful hockey team outside North America: the Soviet Army Hockey team (CSKA), which was the backbone of the very successful USSR National team. On paper, that was a brilliant, creative idea. For that kind of money, if the Pittsburgh Penguins could get a couple of Stanley Cup winning players, it was worth it. That's what they thought. And that side of the story is well covered in the movie. What they did not see, is that they were not entering a playing field they knew the rules of. This is evident in the final minutes of the documentary (even though no one admits that they had no clue as to what awaited them). I felt that the documentary did a good job of documenting the facts from both sides of the cultural divide. Where it lacks is in any form of critical investigation is about how naive the Penguins were to make this investment in the first place. In fine, this a magnificent reminder about cultural ignorance. And this is where the effort falls somewhat short of the mark, failing to draw the lessons learned from this very remarkable story. Still very watchable, now that you know the limitations of the piece.

So much of "Red Penguins" came as a surprise to me, even though I was an adult during the time period in which it occurred. It seems that after the fall of communism in the old USSR, the once-legendary Russian Army hockey team was in ruins. All their best players had recently defected to the NHL and the team was bankrupt. Amazingly, the Pittsburgh Penguins saw a major opportunity in this, as the plan was to rejuvenate this team with a massive influx of cash and NHL know-how. The film is about how this ultimately failed....and amazingly some of the Russians interviewed blamed the NHL and the United States for this, though the truth lies much closer to home.

The film shocked me how much the film appealed to a wide audience. Some of this is because many of the problems that ruined the Red Penguins are in place today and control Russia today. Well worth seeing and quite engaging.

The trailer looked crazy-good, but the trailer is packed with all the crazy there is. Spread that out over an hour and a half and it's less exhilarating. That said, it's a pretty interesting look at Russia at the time and how the politics and civil unrest were destabilizing it. I found those parts more interesting than the hockey parts.