There are certain subject matters that are so dark and so grim that making jokes about them shouldn’t work or would be seen as in poor taste. Somehow, “The Death of Stalin” (2017, directed by Armando Iannucci) takes one of the darkest points in human history and makes a hilarious comedy out of it.
It’s 1953, and after 30 years of tyrannical rule, Josef Stalin (played by Adrian McLoughlin) has died from a stroke. With their dictator dead three members of Moscow’s committee try to make a power grab to become the new head of the committee and leader of the Soviet Union.
Those three are: acting general secretary and Stalin’s successor, Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor); head of NKVD (the predecessor of the present day KGB), Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Bell); and 1st secretary Moscow committee, Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi).
What’s so great about the film is that, while taking place during a very dark time in human history where someone would be killed or sent to the gulag for the tiniest of offenses, is one of the funniest comedies to come out in a while.
The movie is loosely based around historical events, with a lot of the broad strokes being pretty historically accurate, but a lot of small details being inaccurate or changed for the film’s plot.
The movie does a great job of balancing the harshness of living in the Soviet Union with the comedy of how just petty the committee members are, arguing over the smallest of things, like which doctor they should get for Stalin.
What also helps make the movie as hilarious as it is, is some of the larger-than-life personalities of people involved in the plot.
The two stand outs, hands down, are Nikita Khrushchev and Field Marshal Zhukov (Jason Isaacs).
Steve Buscemi’s Khrushchev is a very funny watch, with him being a mile-a-minute talker, and the last one anyone would suspect for a power play.
Jason Isaacs’ Zhukov, meanwhile, is refreshingly straightforward compared to the rest of the cast, while most of the players are sneaky and trying to backstab each other without it being too obvious. Zhukov is straightforward and blunt, bringing some of the biggest laughs in the film.
While the film is a laugh riot at no point does it downplay the horrors of living in Soviet Russia while under Stalin’s rule. For every scene that’s pure comedy, like where the committee literally can not stop arguing – even while at Stalin’s funeral, there’s another scene showing people being rounded up and killed for seemingly no reason.
Something that’s really neat is that no one in the film even attempts to do a Russian accent, instead talking in their native accents. But it weirdly works historically, with the Soviet Union engulfing a lot of other countries with a variety of different accents.
For instance Stalin talks in a very thick cockney accent, which might be a reference to the fact that in real life, Stalin spoke in a very thick Georgian accent.
Speaking of historical accuracy, the movie isn’t 100% historically accurate with events that were months to years apart being compressed to a few days. With that being said, what’s so great about the movie is that some of the funniest moments in the film are at least inspired by real historical events.
This film (one of many films banned in Russia), is a fun watch for those who either know alot about the time period or next to nothing or anywhere in between. But if you’re a true history buff or one of those people who has a conniption because a cufflink is not from the correct date, the film might annoy you a tad.
The Death of Stalin is one of those weird movies where one would think that there’s no way it would work, and in many ways it shouldn’t, but somehow manages to pull it off gracefully and makes it look effortless.
