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Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996)
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Movie Review by The Gravedigger
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04.21.05
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This made-for-cable movie casts Alan Rickman (DIE HARD, HARRY POTTER movies) as Gregori Rasputin, Greta Scaachi (SHATTERED, COCA COLA KID) as Tsarina Alexandra and Ian McKellan (XMEN & LORD OF THE RINGS) as Tsar Nicholas II.The crazed monk is much more favorably portrayed than in Hammer's RASPUTIN: THE MAD MONK. It's more along the historical novel NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA.Rasputin seems to miraculously cure the Tsar's hemophiliac son from bleeding to death and Alexandra starts believing all too readily that he can do miracles. Rasputin insists that he's just a servant of God. Although he views himself as a holy man he drinks far too much and absolutely loves indulging with the local whores. The Tsar's personal doctor just thinks he's a gifted hypnotist. At a certain point in the movie even Rasputin doesn't seem to know if he's really hearing voices from above or if it's just a product of his fevered mind.As the movie progresses the nobility become far more dependent upon him as they give him emotional power over themselves. Rasputin is viewed as a threat by one of Alexandra's relatives and he's killed. It takes a bit to kill him though-he's poisoned with enough to kill a crowd of men, shot several times and then finally dumped into the river.While this is happening a revolution of the people has occurred-and the family is thrown out of power. For nearly two years they are kept prisoner until they are all assassinated in Siberia. Not shortly before he was killed Rasputin had told Alexandra that if he was killed all the rest of them would be killed in two years-which turned out to be true.It's an interesting tale because it's actually true.
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Rating: 4.3 out of 10.0 - 4 votes cast total
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