NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA Review – Janet Suzman, Michael Jayston – d: Franklin J. Schaffner

NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA (1971)

Direction: Franklin J. Schaffner

Cast: Michael Jayston, Janet Suzman, Irene Worth, Laurence Olivier, Tom Baker, Harry Andrews, Michael Bryant, Maurice Denham, Jack Hawkins, Ian Holm, John McEnery, Eric Porter, Michael Redgrave, Alan Webb, Curd Jürgens, Lynne Frederick, Roderic Nobel

Screenplay: James Goldman; from Robert K. Massie's 1967 historical novel

Oscar Movies

Nicholas and Alexandra is surely one of the most sumptuous productions ever made. The elaborate sets and costumes, Richard Rodney Bennett's lush musical score, and the richly textured cinematography (courtesy of frequent David Lean collaborator Freddie Young) provide the perfect period atmosphere for this historical epic. Missing, however, is a screenplay that offers dialogue instead of speeches, and a directorial hand that brings out truth instead of melodrama.

Nicholas and Alexandra begins when, after several unsuccessful attempts, Tsar Nicholas II (Michael Jayston) finally becomes the father of a boy. Shortly thereafter, he and his wife, the German-born Empress Alexandra (Janet Suzman), have their happiness crushed when they discover that their infant son is a hemophiliac.

In addition to his familial turmoil, the Tsar must also deal with popular discontent over a long-running war against Japan for control of the Korean peninsula, and with social disturbances caused by a wrecked economy and a lack of democratic institutions. In the meantime, the empress soothes her pain with the assistance of the mystic Rasputin (Tom Baker), who seems to have mysterious powers that keep her frail son alive.

Through the guidance of his advisors, the gentle but narrow-minded Tsar ever so grudgingly opens up the semi-feudal Russian political system. But it is too little, too late. Worsening matters, an ill-fated decision to send troops to the western border leads to a declaration of war from Germany and the beginning of World War I.

As the Russian economy collapses, social chaos ensues. Inevitably, the imperial family ends up swept into the flames of the revolution.

Due to James Goldman's part-history lesson, part-daytime soap script, and Franklin J. Schaffner's ludicrously old-fashioned direction, most of the performers act out their roles instead of living them. Tom Baker's highly mannered Rasputin is a case in point, and so is Janet Suzman's superficial Alexandra — who, like everyone in tsarist Russia, from peasants to foreign empresses, speaks flawless British English. Laurence Olivier, for his part, is so over the top that his climactic "the end is near" speech comes across as parody.

Aside from a few theatrical moments, the stage-trained Michael Jayston actually fares better than most of the movie-veteran cast members, conveying Nicholas' failings as well as his strengths in a generally believable and at times quite touching manner. But it is Irene Worth's Queen Mother who, with her commanding presence, manages to steal every scene in which she appears. Watching Worth's no-nonsense elder queen, one realizes that had she been the ruler of all Russias in 1917, there would have been no revolution. No one would have dared.

A less conventional approach could have turned Nicholas and Alexandra into a masterful historical drama. As it stands, legendary producer Sam Spiegel's mega-production is a watchable, if overlong, soap opera. Yet, if the scenes showing Lenin, Trotsky, and other revolutionary figures feel stomach-turningly phony, Nicholas and Alexandra is partially redeemed at the end. For even with the absence of the surprise element, the fate of the last of the Romanovs is no less horrifying.

Note: A version of this review was initially posted in October 2004.