Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)

[TimM]

the story  needs more than 3 hours

Perhaps a mini-series like I, Claudius.

[Alixz]

I think the movie does a remarkable job, given the time restraints...the story  needs more than 3 hours. However one the biggest  errors , most  likely done in the cause of time, is that the  whole family went off with Vasily Yaksovlev.  

I had forgotten about that.  The whole family did not go with Yakovlev and I wondered at the time why the director showed that they did.  Again probably just a way to condense the story.

[Alixz]

A picture of the real Yakov Yurovksy - no kind grandfatherly figure there!  Yurovsky was born in 1878 and so was about 40 at the time of the executions.

The actor who played him was Alan Webb.  He was born in 1906 and was 65 when he played Yurovsky in the film.  I have been looking for a photo of Webb as Yurovsky, but so far I can't find one.

[Alixz]

I have the original theater program.  This picture is scanned from it.  Yurovsky as the "kindly grandfather" is in the middle of this group with his gun front and center.

I can see a resemblance to the original Yurovsky but Alan Webb is playing him much older than he was at the time of the executions.

[blessOTMA]

 Alan Webb is so different a type than Yurovsky was , I think it has to be a conscious  choice on the part of the film makers. I believe they wanted the  chilling aspect of this mild older man who's a cold blooded killer....and now that I see the firing quad from the film , they all are way older than the real ones were! 

[Alixz]

I don't see why they wanted to change the character so much!  I remember when Webb as Yurovsky first appears in the film the audience almost laughed out loud.  How could this kindly looking old man be an executioner?  He opens the door to Ipatiev House and welcomes the family in.  This doesn't ring true to any account that I have read about the jailers and their attitude toward the Imperial Family.

I think that the film makers should have stuck more to the original.  

Those of you who have never seen the movie in a theater with a large group of people would never have heard that reaction or gotten that feeling.

Alan Webb's portrayal might be Yurovsky as Yurovsky might have been as an old man of 65, but not at all the man who was in charge of the Ipatiev House guards.

[Robert_Hall]

I, for one, like the film. FOR WHAT IS- FILM. It  is not a documentary history. The artistic license taken was  for the benefit of the movie.  I do not know why Yurovsky was altered so much from the reality, but I imagine it was for dramatic conflict. Keep the viewing audience a bit confused as to what his intentions were. And, it seems to me, that the same people who complain that the GDs did not "look"like the real ones-  also adore that tacky Anastasia cartoon.

[TimM]

They also omitted Yurosky'e speech, before the shooting started.  Or was that information only uncovered after the Soviet Union fell and everyone got access to the archives?

[Alixz]

Robert - I have to agree with you.  The number of people in the theater who actually knew the whole truth - especially in 1971 - was very small.  The film was aimed towards those people and gave what it could in the limited time that it had. 

I have often defended the film and the plot tactics, but I don't see the gain in showing Yurovsky as 25 years older than he was.

I would not go to see the "tacky" Anastasia cartoon, but I do know that it did bring new interest to the story of the Imperial Family and I thought that was good.

And the Grand Duchesses were "cookie cutter" characters, but again the story was not about them.  It was about Nicholas & Alexandra and Alexei and the fall of the dynasty.

[blessOTMA]

Bob,  I like the film and always have. But I'm exception to the rule. I can't stand the cartoon , but think the actress playing  Olga is totally unsuitable...the others are much more in keeping with their historical counterpart. However it's a remarkable achievement generally  given the time restraint  and  the cast is exceptional .

[TimM]

This was on TV Ontario last night.  Rather strange movie to show on Christmas Day.

[bestfriendsgirl]

I didn't watch Nicholas and Alexandra until recently, because I was too afraid I'd be disappointed in it! I loved it, as it turns out, because I was able to see it  for what it is ... a big budget Hollywood period piece, gorgeous to look at if nothing else. Michael Jayston made the dreamiest Nicky I've ever seen on screen! As for the scene with Tatiana, well, sex sells - it did 40 years ago and it does now and since when has Hollywood let the facts stand in the way of a good story? I'd love to see a remake of this, especially while Robert Massie is still with us. If I ever win one of those gazillion-dollar lottery jackpots, I'll finance one!

[TsarAlexeiII]

I know this post is a year old, but I feel it important to say that Yurovsky, while made twenty-five years older than he really was, was not portrayed as a "kindly old grandfather figure" in the move. It's true that he welcomes them in, and is conflicted as to whether or not he should allow the family to read their mail before they are killed, but nonetheless when the representative of the Ural Soviet arrives at the Ipatiev house to tell Yurovsky that it is still debating whether or not the whole family should be killed, we can clearly see that he is angered by this hold-up. His bloodthirsty attitude is emphasized when he is finally sent the order to execute the whole family by saying "I could have told you that."

I don't view him as benign person in any way, in either reality or the movie.

[TsarAlexeiII]

There were two at the time the film was released.

One was a magazine no longer in print called AFTER DARK
This one actually talked about what really happened during the filming.
It seems that the girls began to cry. It was said that 2 of them would start and they would calm them down and the other two would start. During this time Roderic Noble became very hyper and would run up to one of the girls and hit her.I remember it was a crew member who was interviewed for the article because he said that it unnerved the crew they had tried to make them a family for 9 months and now they were too much a family. He also went on to say that when they finally finished filming the girls broke down again.

Azrael

Here is an interview with Roderic Noble (now 53) from March 3, 2011: http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/features/columnists/latest/8888374.Tsar_for_a_day/

[Laura Mabee]

Thanks for that interview TAII.