The Russian Five

It's not unusual for a sports documentary to allude to the values or politics of a community, but it is rare for one to explore both global political themes as thoroughly as it immerses itself in the local tribalism of sports. This film unfolds a specific corner of the picture of the Cold War through the journeys of five men who left the Soviet Union to play hockey in North America. We find out about the risks they each took and the people who risked political and professional threats to bring them to the other side of the Iron Curtain

The producers of this film have a great deal of access to the players themselves and the American team officials that brought them to the US, so we get the story told in their own words as well as views of contemporary news coverage and the players' North American team mates. We get to see the events and recall the emotions of the era and we have the perspective of history to see their lasting impact on the game of hockey.

This movie has a lot for fans of the Detroit Red Wings, but any fan of the NHL or international hockey will likely find the story riveting

This movie was great! Telling the whole story of getting the Russians to defect and how stealthy they had to be was brilliant. I got to learn things I didn't know and feel those experiences all over again. Loved it.

It has it all, you fell uncomfortable at the beginning, then comes the warm feeling of pride. You feel happiness with the team and sadness at the end. This movie touches every emotion on the spectrum.

This movie was amazing. It captured the feeling of 1990's NHL hockey. The documentary was well put together and reminded you of the political climate of the 80's/90's as well as the extreme physical nature of the NHL at this time period. Red Wings fans should love it. Avalanche fans ought to respect it. NHL fans should never forget it. It was extremely interesting learning the actual stories of how Russian players had to drastically change their lives to leave their home country to play in the NHL. We brought a friend who is a physician in the United States, was born in Russia, and knew very little about hockey. She loved the movie and cheered hard for the Russian players.

The Good: As a documentary, this film succeeded by invoking popular tropes from successful narrative fiction films - some based on true stories. It has the espionage intrigue of Spy Game (Tony Scott, 2001) with tales of locker room conversations in Russia under KGB surveillance. It has the front office machinations and calculations of Moneyball (Bennett Miller, 2011), wherein a General Manager from an already successful team is brought in to turn around a franchise circling the drain. Most importantly it has the kinetic excitement and tale of adversity of a hockey film like Miracle (Gavin O'Connor, 2004), and ironically enough The Russian Five has one of the same players as that "miracle on ice" story.

The Bad: The story is inconsistent in its delivery. Early on, there are elements of intrigue and ingenuity, but those fade in favor of a more conventional, less exciting teleological point of view. Perhaps it's a drawback associated with tying documentary talking head interviews, and archival footage with narrative films, but there isn't a throughline of thought concerning what kind of story is being told. The film's greatest strength is perhaps its greatest weakness. Is it a story of intrigue with late night state department phone calls? Or, is it a film about the genius, or collective geniuses, required to build a championship contender? Or, is it a film about the triumph over adversity, even when a team can be at the top of its sport?

The Ugly: Documentary style with shades of Ocean's Eleven (Steven Soderbergh, 2001), The Cove (Louie Psihoyos, 2009) begins and ends with a cohesive story. Psihoyos introduces an old dolphin trainer with a broken heart who reveals what could possibly be the greatest inhuman injustice known to contemporary consciousness. The steady rise to the film's climax and the constant suspense as Psihoyos and his crew of crack filmmakers set the stage is excellently orchestrated. The Russian Five tells a nostalgic story of a great era in the history of a storied hockey franchise, but The Cove better exemplifies the callbacks to narrative genre films that both films rely on for success in their storytelling.