**** MINOR SPOILERS ****
Set during the Gorbachev Glasnost era of change, Jeffrey West (actor Edward Albert; 'Power Rangers', 'Man in The Iron Mask') is an American agent who gets caught on his last assignment in Moscow and is sent by train to a labor camp in a temperate forested region of Siberia. Almost the entire movie takes place there, beside a backward but naturally picturesque rural Siberian village. Things aren't great, but they sure ain't no frozen gulag hellhole either. The place is so remote that the prisoners are at times allowed to walk freely around the village, to get drunk and party, and even permanently ship-in their wives.
West is befriended by Fyodor, a wealthy oriental trader (Chinese actor Victor Wong; 'The Last Emperor', 'Prince of Darkness', '3 Ninjas'), who provides him with rambling but meaningful metaphysical nature wisdom that includes how to potentially escape. West harbors a secret that causes him to fall under the watchful eye of the camp commander, Koyla (Russian actor Yevgeni Lazarev) - whose main principle in life is Stalin-era devotion to the state and the job the state has entrusted him with. The situation later devolves into an all-or-nothing vendetta against West when Koyla's realizes that his entire authoritarian world will soon collapse around him due to the reforms of Glasnost. There's actually quite a bit of symbolic meaning and subtext here - just think about the choice of the name `West'.
Until this point (approximately 90 minutes in) the movie is doing fine with adequate acting, well-spaced action, rustic 1930's period-like set design (but its the late 80's, but this is rural Siberia) and remarkably good cinematography, filmed entirely on location in Russia. We learn absolutely nothing about West's past, but he's in a delicate situation where nothing can be revealed. We learn about his intelligence, bravery and spirit through his actions, and these ultimately shine through and annoy Koyla. However, Koyla is nowhere near as cruel as your average Nazi SS officer, and he at times even mildly draws our sympathy. Although he does seem happiest when the spirit of his prisoners is broken, since this obviously makes his job that much easier. In the end, we don't really need to know more about these characters. West will try to escape some day, and Koyla has to stop him if he is to maintain his sense of purpose.
But the film begins to unravel in the last 15 minutes, not long before the final chase on the frozen ice sheets. The cinematography - shot on location in the Artic - is spectacular, but the ending gets lost down some artificial ice crack as hokey mystic mumbo-jumbo flashbacks and unbelievable circumstances completely destroy the end game's credibility. After such a tremendous build-up, the 'ice-running' confrontation between West and Koyla is anticlimactic, disappointing and wrapped-up way too quickly. A well thought-out rewrite of the last 20 minutes could have done wonders. They may have run out of money, or maybe a blizzard hit before they finished filming, but they definitely fumbled the ball at the very end of this movie.
My favorite scenes were by far those with Fyodor divulging his nature secrets and metaphysical beliefs to Jeffrey West. They strangely reminded me of Akira Kurosawa's classic 1975 film 'Dersu Uzala', where a similar relationship evolves between an Asiatic hunter and a Russian military captain. Although this is a far superior film to 'The Ice Runner', they both dramatize a bond of mutual respect and friendship that develops between a receptive westerner and a naturally clued-in oriental somewhere in the Russian outback.
It has often been said that a very good movie can be totally ruined by a really bad ending. That's probably not an inaccurate description of 'The Ice Runner'. You honestly might be better off stopping this movie before the last 15 minutes, since the ending certainly does this film serious, if not irreparable, harm. (6 out of 10)
Set during the Gorbachev Glasnost era of change, Jeffrey West (actor Edward Albert; 'Power Rangers', 'Man in The Iron Mask') is an American agent who gets caught on his last assignment in Moscow and is sent by train to a labor camp in a temperate forested region of Siberia. Almost the entire movie takes place there, beside a backward but naturally picturesque rural Siberian village. Things aren't great, but they sure ain't no frozen gulag hellhole either. The place is so remote that the prisoners are at times allowed to walk freely around the village, to get drunk and party, and even permanently ship-in their wives.
West is befriended by Fyodor, a wealthy oriental trader (Chinese actor Victor Wong; 'The Last Emperor', 'Prince of Darkness', '3 Ninjas'), who provides him with rambling but meaningful metaphysical nature wisdom that includes how to potentially escape. West harbors a secret that causes him to fall under the watchful eye of the camp commander, Koyla (Russian actor Yevgeni Lazarev) - whose main principle in life is Stalin-era devotion to the state and the job the state has entrusted him with. The situation later devolves into an all-or-nothing vendetta against West when Koyla's realizes that his entire authoritarian world will soon collapse around him due to the reforms of Glasnost. There's actually quite a bit of symbolic meaning and subtext here - just think about the choice of the name `West'.
Until this point (approximately 90 minutes in) the movie is doing fine with adequate acting, well-spaced action, rustic 1930's period-like set design (but its the late 80's, but this is rural Siberia) and remarkably good cinematography, filmed entirely on location in Russia. We learn absolutely nothing about West's past, but he's in a delicate situation where nothing can be revealed. We learn about his intelligence, bravery and spirit through his actions, and these ultimately shine through and annoy Koyla. However, Koyla is nowhere near as cruel as your average Nazi SS officer, and he at times even mildly draws our sympathy. Although he does seem happiest when the spirit of his prisoners is broken, since this obviously makes his job that much easier. In the end, we don't really need to know more about these characters. West will try to escape some day, and Koyla has to stop him if he is to maintain his sense of purpose.
But the film begins to unravel in the last 15 minutes, not long before the final chase on the frozen ice sheets. The cinematography - shot on location in the Artic - is spectacular, but the ending gets lost down some artificial ice crack as hokey mystic mumbo-jumbo flashbacks and unbelievable circumstances completely destroy the end game's credibility. After such a tremendous build-up, the 'ice-running' confrontation between West and Koyla is anticlimactic, disappointing and wrapped-up way too quickly. A well thought-out rewrite of the last 20 minutes could have done wonders. They may have run out of money, or maybe a blizzard hit before they finished filming, but they definitely fumbled the ball at the very end of this movie.
My favorite scenes were by far those with Fyodor divulging his nature secrets and metaphysical beliefs to Jeffrey West. They strangely reminded me of Akira Kurosawa's classic 1975 film 'Dersu Uzala', where a similar relationship evolves between an Asiatic hunter and a Russian military captain. Although this is a far superior film to 'The Ice Runner', they both dramatize a bond of mutual respect and friendship that develops between a receptive westerner and a naturally clued-in oriental somewhere in the Russian outback.
It has often been said that a very good movie can be totally ruined by a really bad ending. That's probably not an inaccurate description of 'The Ice Runner'. You honestly might be better off stopping this movie before the last 15 minutes, since the ending certainly does this film serious, if not irreparable, harm. (6 out of 10)