Gorky Park
Directed by	Michael Apted
Produced by	Bob Larson Hawk Koch
Written by	Martin Cruz Smith (novel) Dennis Potter
Starring	William Hurt Lee Marvin Brian Dennehy Joanna Pacuła Ian Bannen Richard Griffiths Michael Elphick Rikki Fulton Ian McDiarmid Alexei Sayle
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	Ralf D. Bode
Editing by	Dennis Virkler
Studio	Eagle Associates
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date(s)	December 15, 1983
Running time	128 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$15,856,028

Gorky Park is a 1983 film based on the novel Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith. It was directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay by Dennis Potter (for which he won a 1984 Edgar Award).

The main stars of the film are William Hurt as Arkady Renko, Lee Marvin as Jack Osborne, Joanna Pacuła as Irina Asanova, Rikki Fulton as Major Pribluda, Brian Dennehy as William Kirwill, Ian McDiarmid as Professor Andreev, Michael Elphick as Pasha and Ian Bannen as Prosecutor Iamskoy. James Horner wrote the score. Ralf Bode was cinematographer.

Pacuła was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture, and Elphick was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film also featured Alexei Sayle as a black marketeer.

Synopsis[link]

Three young people are seen ice skating in Gorky Park. Three days later, Soviet militsiya officer Arkady Renko (William Hurt) investigates the discovery of their bodies a short distance from the skating rink. All have been shot in the chest and mouth; their faces and fingerprints have been completely removed. Renko is left anxious and paranoid when the KGB refuse to take over the investigation. Renko enlists the help of Professor Andreev (Ian McDiarmid) to reconstruct their faces.

During his investigation, Renko crosses paths with William Kirwill (Brian Dennehy), a New York detective who is in the Soviet Union investigating the disappearance of his brother James. At a weekend getaway at the dacha of Chief Prosecutor Iamskoy (Ian Bannen), Renko also makes the acquaintance of American sable importer Jack Osborne (Lee Marvin) and his girlfriend Irina Asanova (Joanna Pacuła).

Renko is eventually able to piece together the victims' identities: James Kirwill, plus two young Russians who were friends with Irina. He discovers that the three were busy constructing a chest for Osborne. Renko's suspicion of Osborne mounts over time, during their polite but tense conversations in social settings. When Irina is attacked by a KGB officer who attempts to inject her with a fatal overdose, Renko saves her. Nursing her back to health in his apartment, they begin an affair.

Kirwill finally locates the barn where the three victims were building Osborne's chest. It was designed to smuggle six sables out of the country and break the Russian monopoly on their fur, potentially earning Osborne millions. Irina stubbornly continues to believe that her friends are alive. Osborne had promised to smuggle them out of Russia in return for their work; he tells Irina that they were successfully freed.

Renko confronts her with Prof. Andreev's reconstructed head of one of her friends, forcing her to realize that they have been murdered by Osborne. She confesses the full details of the plot to him and then runs away. Renko and Kirwill go to Andreev's to retrieve the second reconstructed head, but a KGB spook emerges with it in a box. They follow him, and Renko is crushed to find they are back at Iamskoy's dacha. They watch from a distance as Osborne and Iamskoy supervise the destruction of the head by the KGB spook. To Kirwill's horror, it is his brother's head.

Renko confronts Iamskoy in a bath house. Iamskoy cordially admits that he kept Renko on the case because Osborne was unwilling to pay a high enough price to smuggle out the sables. Renko's investigation was intended to frighten Osborne into paying more. He offers to cut Renko in on Osborne's kickback. Renko reveals that he has recorded the conversation, and Iamskoy jumps up and wrestles Renko for the gun. In the ensuing struggle, Renko's gun goes off and kills him.

Osborne flees to Stockholm. The KGB allows Renko to supervise an exchange. He is to receive the sables from Osborne, whereupon everyone will be allowed to walk away. Renko is shown into a bedroom where Irina is waiting for him. She confesses that she fled to Osborne, who has worked her freedom into the deal for the sables. She promises Renko that his freedom can also be part of the deal. Disgusted by her treachery, Renko tells Irina she has blood on her hands. He meets with Kirwill and the two assume that as soon as the exchange is complete, the KGB will kill Irina, Renko and Osborne all at once.

The next morning, at a remote farm, Renko and the KGB approach Osborne. They come across the corpse of Kirwill; tied to a tree with his intestines hanging out. Renko is devastated; Osborne then loudly announces that he gutted Kirwill after he killed his dogs. Osborne throws six dead sables onto the field and asks the men to lower their weapons. Renko realizes that neither side will let the other live. When Osborne shoots a man, Renko grabs Irina and runs for cover in the woods. Pribulda then kills the other man before Osborne kills Pribluda in a stand off.

Osborne tries to shoot Renko in the woods. Renko finds more live sables in their cages. Irina emerges from the woods and Osborne threatens to kill her if Renko does not surrender. When Renko emerges to give up, Irina shoots Osborne. Renko, too, shoots Osborne before Irina fires multiple rounds, killing him. She asks Renko to go away with her, but Renko reveals he agreed to do the hit on Osborne in return for Irina's safety and freedom from Russia, and that she'd be hunted down and killed if Renko did not return.

Renko frees all of the sables, which run off into the woods as we hear Irina's voice repeat Renko's promise that they will meet again one day.

Cast[link]

• William Hurt as Arkady Renko
• Lee Marvin as Jack Osborne
• Brian Dennehy as William Kirwill
• Ian Bannen as Iamskoy
• Joanna Pacula as Irina Asanova
• Michael Elphick as Pasha
• Richard Griffiths as Anton
• Rikki Fulton as Maj. Pribluda
• Alexander Knox as General
• Alexei Sayle as Golodkin
• Ian McDiarmid as Prof. Andreev
• Niall O'Brien as KGB Agent Rurik
• Henry Woolf as Levin
• Tusse Silberg as Natasha
• Patrick Field as Fet

Filming[link]

Gorky Park was filmed in Helsinki and Stockholm, as the crew were denied access to Moscow.^[1]

Critical reception[link]

The film has a 77% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[2] Janet Maslin called it "a taut, clever thriller throughout, with Mr. Apted's direction establishing its intensity immediately and sustaining it well. Ralf G. Bode's cinematography and James Horner's score go a long way toward setting a hauntingly bleak mood, and the supporting players, particularly Brian Dennehy and Ian Bannen, are excellent".^[3] Though she found it odd that Hurt would affect an English accent, she found his performance "rivetingly strange".

Roger Ebert found the depiction of Russian society to be the most interesting aspect of the film, and he credited Apted's direction for never letting the procedural lag. Ebert also praised the casting, even if it relied on typecasting an actor like Marvin. "He uses actors who are able to bring fully realized characters to the screen, so we don't have to stand around waiting for introductions".^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gorky Park at the Internet Movie Database
• Gorky Park at Rotten Tomatoes
• Gorky Park (film) at AllRovi
• Gorky Park (film) at the TCM Movie Database