Review by Greg GoodsellDirected by Franklin J. Schaffner
At the turn of the 20th century, the Russian Czars were as criminally out of touch with their people as the French Aristocracy was in the 18th century before the advent of the guillotine. The unprepared and naïve Nicholas II (Michael Jayston) along with his German-born wife Alexandra (Janet Suzman) are young, in love and responsible for the deaths of countless millions of Russians, due to unsuccessful wars fought abroad and the ruthless exploitation of the working class. Finally producing a male heir after producing four very spoiled princesses, they learn that the heir apparent, thanks to generations of inbreeding, is a hemophiliac. Rising to the challenge of being both spiritual adviser and miracle worker to their ailing son is Mad Monk Rasputin (played by the fourth Doctor Who, Tom Baker, in a bravura performance), a most unholy holy man who outdoes the televangelists of today with his rampant alcoholism and womanizing. With the advent of World War I, things for the Romanov Royal Family begin to unravel quickly. Besting Germany only by the size of its – mostly unarmed army, millions of Russian troops begin to die on the battlefield due to being allotted only three bullets a day. The Bolsheviks, comprised of idealists such as Lenin and even far worse despots such as Stalin, begin their revolution. Rasputin is killed, and there is growing international pressure on Nicholas to abdicate. After doing so reluctantly, he and his wife, son, daughters and loyal household help hurtle inexorably to their appointment with a firing squad …