Nicholas and Alexandra is a 1971 biographical film which tells the story of the last of Russia's monarchs, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra.
The film was adapted by James Goldman from the book by Robert K. Massie. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.
It won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (John Box, Ernest Archer, Jack Maxsted, Gil Parrondo, Vernon Dixon) and Best Costume Design, and was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Janet Suzman), Best Cinematography, Best Music, Original Dramatic Score and Best Picture.[1]
Cast
Plot summary
The story begins with the birth of the Tsarevich Alexei in the opulent surroundings of the Imperial Court. The Russo-Japanese War is on and Tsar Nicholas (Michael Jayston) is warned by Count Witte (Laurence Olivier) and Grand Duke Nicholas (Harry Andrews) that the war is futile and costing too many lives. They also tell him that the Russian people want representative government, health care, voting and workers' rights, but Nicholas wants to maintain the traditional autocracy left to him by his forefathers. Meanwhile, underground political parties led by Lenin (Michael Bryant), Stalin (James Hazeldine), and Trotsky (Brian Cox) have formed.
Alexei is soon diagnosed with hemophilia. The Tsarina Alexandra (Janet Suzman) is frantic. A shy former German princess who is not highly thought of by the Russian royal court, she is isolated, but is befriended by Grigori Rasputin (Tom Baker), a Siberian peasant who describes himself as a religious pilgrim or holy man. He has become a curiosity with some people at court. Later Alexandra calls upon him to help her pray for Alexei, and comes to believe in his healing abilities.
In a textile mill, working under ghastly conditions, the people are encouraged by their priest, Father George Gapon (Julian Glover). He leads them, joined by many other peasant workers, in a clearly peaceful procession to the Winter Palace, intending to present a petition to the Tsar. Hundreds of soldiers stand ready in front of the palace; their commanding officer tells them to shoot up in the air, but he falls from his horse, there is a panic, and the soldiers proceed to fire randomly into the crowd. Nicholas has not been at the palace and is horrified when he hears of the massacre, but admits he wouldn't have granted the people's requests. (Bloody Sunday)
Eight years later, on the 300th anniversary of Romanov rule, the family vacations at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea. Alexei (Roderic Noble) is a very lively little boy who is constantly prevented from leading a normal life. A close bond however, exists between Alexei and his bodyguard/protector, the Russian Naval Sailor Nagorny (John Hallam). Nicholas gets police reports about Rasputin's dissolute behavior, and dismisses him from the court. Alexandra demands his return. She knows Alexei's hemophilia was inherited from her, and is wracked with guilt. She is obsessed with the thought that Rasputin can stop the bleeding attacks when they occur.
Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin (Eric Porter) has granted some of the people's requests in order to preserve the Empire, but he is shot at an opera performance in Kiev. Nicholas retaliates not only by executing the killer, but by closing the Duma and allowing police to terrorize the peasants and burn their homes.
Alexei has a minor fall at the Spala Hunting Lodge, which leads to the worst bleeding attack yet. It is presumed that he will die. The Tsaritsa writes a letter to Rasputin, who soon responds with words of comfort and confidence. Sure enough, the Tsarevich recovers, and Rasputin is allowed to return.
World War I begins with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Germany declares war on Russia immediately after Nicholas has order the mobilisation of Russia's forces on the German border. Nicholas decides to command the troops himself in 1915 and leaves for the front, taking over from his much more experienced cousin, Grand Duke Nicholas. This leaves Alexandra in charge at home. Under Rasputin's influence and her own conservative inclinations, she makes unwise decisions. Very few people have been told about Alexei's illness or how Rasputin is (apparently) helping him, so it looks like the Tsaritsa is losing her mind, or perhaps having an affair with Rasputin. On a sort of drunken whim, two decadent young princes, Grand Duke Dmitri (Richard Warwick) and Prince Felix Yusupov (Martin Potter), invite Rasputin to an opium party and kill him in December, 1916.
Deprived of her one trusted advisor, Alexandra becomes unable to cope. Workers are on strike everywhere. The army is ill supplied. Starving and freezing, they revolt, and St. Petersburg is overrun with them. Nicholas is forced to abdicate in his train at Mogiliev, not only for himself but for Alexei, who is furious when he hears this, and becomes withdrawn, believing that the family will soon perish. Nicholas is visited by his mother the Dowager Empress Maria Foeodorovna (Irene Worth), (who is very outspokenly critical of her son's lack of leadership abilities), before he returns to Tsarskoe Selo.
Nicholas, Alexandra and Alexei, moments before their execution
The family (and Dr. Botkin (Timothy West) and Nagorny) are forced to leave the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo by Kerensky and are brought to Siberia in mid-1917, where they live under less grand conditions with rough but decent guards. In late 1917, Russia falls into the hands of the Bolshevik party, the one revolutionary group that nobody took seriously. The Russian Civil War starts very soon afterwards, and the family is transferred to the grim Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, under harsher conditions, and into the keeping of the cold-blooded and unfeeling Yakov Yurovsky (Alan Webb) (whom Alexei immediately pegs as an evil man). At one point, some of the guards are physically harsh with young Alexei, so Nagorny leaps to his defense and attacks them. Nagorny is then taken away and shot, leaving Alexei even more embittered and withdrawn than he was before. In a near-final tragic scene, the family is shown laughing as they read previously withheld letters from friends, relatives and teachers. Only Alexei remains sober and aloof, sensing what is about to happen. The Bolsheviks are frantically deciding what to do as the White Army is on the verge on capturing Ekaterinburg. In the middle of the night, the Bolsheviks awaken the Romanov family and Dr. Botkin. Told they're being sent to another city, the family and the doctor pack their things and wait in the cellar. Their keeper Yurovsky and his assistants enter the room, as Alexei kisses his father for the last time. They point their guns at the family, causing Olga (Ania Marson) and Tatiana (Lynne Frederick) to scream, Maria (Candace Glendenning) to run into the doctor's arm and Alexandra to cross herself. Then they open fire, and the first bullet goes through Nicholas' hand. The end scene shows the wall covered in blood.
Fact vs. Fiction
Some elements of the movie have been cited as being given creative license, as not being entirely factual.
- Stolypin's assassination is portrayed accurately, but actually took place in 1911. Stolypin is shown as being present at the Tercentenary, which was not until 1913.
- The party at which Rasputin is poisoned is disputed, partly because of the uncertainty on the part of historians over what really happened that night. The scene is thus based on the legend of Rasputin's murder, as crafted by Yussupov over many tellings. Rasputin's death is portrayed in that he still lived after the poisoning and numerous gunshot wounds.
- It's portrayed that the dynasty is unpopular because the Tsarina Alexandra is German. In reality, the House of Romanov ceased to be prominently Russian in 1730, following the death of Peter II. The Hollstein-Gottorp-Romanov lineage that succeeded it were part German, so the Tsarina's heritage by this time was for the most part, immaterial.
- When the Romanovs are executed, not a word is spoken to them prior to their death. Most historical accounts indicate that an execution order was read to them beforehand.
- The Romanov family (formed by the Tsar, his wife and their five children) were executed together with four faithful servants: doctor Eugene Botkin, chambermaid Anna Demidova, cook Ivan Kharitonov, and footman Alexei Trupp. However, in the film only the family and the doctor are finally executed; the other characters do not "exist" in the film.
- The Bolshevik Party is portrayed as a party that nobody took seriously. In reality, the Bolsheviks had won over a large percentage of the Russian population to their side and recruited 200,000 armed volunteers into the Red Guards in the months between April and October 1917, which then led to the October Revolution that put the Bolsheviks in power.
- Alexander Kerensky informed Nicholas that England would not accept him and the Royal Family as refugees. England was actually ready to accept the Romanovs, though with some reluctance. When it was made public that the Romanovs would be sent abroad, the public outcry against it was so overwhelming that the Provisional Government decided to keep them as prisoners, as its own future was on shaky ground.
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