Red Army
2014
***
Director: Gabe Polsky
Cast:
Until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the country's national ice hockey team had comprehensively dominated the sport for more than 30 years. The team was a division of the Red Army and they could train together all year round, which helped them to win nearly every World Championship and Olympic title during this period. Gabe Polsky's interesting documentary tells the story of the Red Army team from the early 1970s to the early 1990 through the eyes of its long-time captain Slava Fetisov. Although Fetisov is a charismatic athlete, he is not the easiest person to interview, but his life includes some moving twists. The film is inevitably also a story about the Cold War. In fact, I would have liked to see more ice hockey and less politics on the screen.
