ADMIRAL - the Film

[Zoe Brain]

Brilliant cinematography, reminiscent in many ways of Kubrick at his best.

The story of Admiral Kolchak. In some ways, a tragic hero, in others, an illustration of the Peter Principle. A superb naval commander, promoted beyond his competence to Military Dictator.

Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (Russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Колча́к, 16 November [O.S. 4 November] 1874 – 7 February 1920) was an Imperial Russian Navy commander, polar explorer and later - the Supreme ruler of the counter-revolutionary anti-communist White forces during the Russian Civil War. As Supreme ruler of Russia (1918–1920), he was recognized in this position by all the heads of the White movement, "De jure" - Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, "De facto" - Entente States. He was also a prominent expert on naval mines and a member of the Russian Geographical Society. Among Kolchak's awards are the St. George Gold Sword for Bravery given for his actions in the battle of Port Arthur and the Great Gold Constantine Medal from the Russian Geographic Society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Kolchak

An interesting sideline is the legendary "Kolchak's Gold", which surprisingly is not mentioned in the film. Full story at http://russiasgreatwar.org/media/int...kolchaks.shtml

By the summer of 1918 the State Bank’s vaults in Kazan’ held more than half of all Russian gold reserves. In time, however, the Volga region, which had been deep in the rear during the First World War, became a major epicentre of the Civil War. Fearing that the bullion would be seized by troops loyal to the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), the Bolsheviks tried to move the reserves, but only managed to ship 100 boxes of gold (valued at 6 million rubles) from Kazan’. At the beginning of August 1918, Kazan’ was captured by units of the Czechoslovakian Legion and portions of the Komuch People’s Army under the command of Lieutenant Colonel V.O. Kappel’ (who would later became one of the most celebrated White Army commanders). The gold was brought to the State Bank’s Omsk branch on 13 October 1918. Just over a month later (18 November), Admiral Kolchak was pronounced Supreme Ruler of Russia. The gold that had previously arrived in Omsk would henceforth be known as “Kolchak’s gold.”

The total amount of gold at the admiral’s disposal was valued at 645.4 million rubles. In physical terms the gold, consisting mostly of coins and ingots together with a small quantity of blanks, weighed approximately 1,080 lbs (490.448 kg). Along with Russian currency, the horde was comprised of coins from fourteen other nations including 24,080 German marks (valued at 11.2 million rubles), Spanish alfones, and 532,000 British sovereigns (equivalent to 5.02 million rubles). American dollars, French and Belgian francs, Japanese yen, and Greek drachmas were also present. The most “exotic” part of the collection were 36,000 Chilean condors valued at just over 2.78 million rubles

While there are two spectacular and realistic naval battles, one involving a minesweeper vs armoured cruiser (3pdrs - 45mm - vs 210mm guns...) , one a cruiser vs shore batteries, there is little action in the air. Only 3 Fokker Eindeckers are shown for a few seconds.
(A few liberties with history are taken - the SMS Friedrich Karl took a long time to sink, only 7 of the crew were lost - but nothing too bad).

Part 1 of 12 parts. Russki, English Subtitles.



Part 2 is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5N73Jv625M and you can access the rest by looking at the "in response to" comment and follow the links therein.

Highly recommended (and there's more than enough love interest for it to qualify as a Chick Flick too)

[Naharaht]

I have 'The Admiral ' on dvd but have not watched it yet. I shall have to do so.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Just watched the first part.
Now I must follow it up. Thanks for the heads up Zoe. With all your troubles down there at the moment I'm suprised that you found time for passing this on. Hope that this indicates that things are easing off where you are.
Rob.

[Archidamus]

Thanks for posting Zoe - like Rob, I hope the situation is improving for you and all our Australian members

[Attila57]

Thx for posting! Really interesting!

Attilio

[BobP]

I have seen parts of this movie. At the conventions I go to there is a dealer named Belle & Blade and he has a wide range of war movies. He has many foreign movies from many periods. Last con I bought Go Tell The Spartans (early Viet Nam) and the Wild Geese. I have to get the Odd Angry Shot on DVD as that is a great movie about Australian's in Viet Nam.

[gully_raker]

Thanks Zoe for the Heads Up!
Must try to get the DVD & watch it with Colbatman who is a lover of Russian History having spent some years there with the Diplomatic Corps.

Incidently did you notice the medal on the chest of the officer on the Left Hand side. Looks like he has contributed to the Forum.

[Zoe Brain]

Hope that this indicates that things are easing off where you are.

They are, relatively. I still have my 90-something year old relatives to look after, a course to prepare when teaching resumes, my thesis to complete, preparations for Cancon, a minor operation to schedule, but at least the bushfire situation is no longer potentially deadly. That combination of weather conditions is rare, but we know enough now to realise just how bad things can get when "the stars are in alignment" as they were for 24 hours. Last time whole townships and worse, much of their population - were wiped out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_bushfires

The odds were well over 50% that we'd get something like this:



We were very lucky. It's the first time we've had such conditions and not had mass casualty events.