Citizen X (DVD)

Writing this review because of news there's a new 2015 movie about the real-life terror that was serial killer Andrei Chikatilo.It'll make an interesting comparison to the powerful 1995 version which was based on the detailed accounting of events by journalist Robert Cullen in his book " The Killer Department ". Notable because, although his work reads like the fantasist creation of a crime writer, he was in fact a Russian station reporter for various western publications.This film is not the commonplace exploitative horror flick with contrived shock value attempting to score titillation points with fans of the genre. Nor did it reveal some fresh human sickness that one immediately wishes they could forget. No great fight scenes or gunplay, no stylish Hannibal Lecter manipulating from behind a plexiglass cage, no one being surgically carved apart. There was just the plodding investigative work and the indomitable will of one man to see that justice found its quarry.Tells the true story of a monstrous predator and the relentless police officer who refused to allow blundering bureaucratic morons to deter him from saving the lives of young women and children; despite experiencing these events in the Soviet Union - which was the very definition of pedantic idiocy.In 1983 a forensic medical examiner was promoted to the Rostov Oblast, a far-west federated Russian district that borders Ukraine. His new position is due to the previous job holder's retirement. Ominously, on his first day of work he already has a dead body waiting for him, that of a young girl who was clearly butchered. While he's disturbed, it is after all his first day. And after spending it acquainting himself with the slipshod incompetence of his predecessor, he wants to go home and get some rest.Then the remains of five more murdered children were brought in.It will be the very last time Lieutenant Viktor Burakov experiences a normal day for the next 8 years.Correctly surmising that they are dealing with a serial killer - he had no way of knowing what the response to his investigations would be; nor could he have predicted that his greatest adversary wouldn't be the murderer, but obtuse political deflection and denial.It's his burden to find the monster while saddled with the so-called Killer Department, an oversight committee made up of his superior, civil bureaucrats, and the embodiment of a communist icehole - the party's political officer. This group gets to play Monday Morning Quarterback with perfect 20/20 Hindsight, constantly hamstringing Burakov's every step while demanding answers that they themselves do not want.Years passed and the body count grew.Efforts to bring in more officers, a budget to include a western computer, and most importantly a call to the head of the United States FBI Behavioral Science Unit for insight and advice to help capture the perpetrator is regularly and repeatedly denied. In fact, he is scolded with the stunningly ignorant pronouncement that, "There are no serial killers in the Soviet Union." That, "Only the decadent West could produce such perverted criminality."He is further frustrated when forced to waste limited resources chasing down and eliminating a bizarre swath of red herrings - from a non-existent gang of mentally retarded escapees to an imagined satanic cult; even culling innocent homosexuals because they were considered sexual deviants, their lives destroyed for the "social good".After working years without a single break, he's physically and emotionally shattered. Suffering a nervous breakdown and unable to function, Burakov is sent to convalesce in hospital. Fearing the loss of his job, his family punished through no fault of their own, he awaits the bad news.But far from the Oblast, global events are unfolding. Events that will change the course of human history and alter the direction of the case.It is now the winter of 1991 - The End Of The Soviet Union is at hand.Personal Note:- The unimaginable amount of bleep that Police Major Viktor Burakov went through was both heartbreaking and inspiring.Seriously, whenever contemplating the utter insanity of working and dealing with idiocy in my own life, I think to Burakov. What he endured; the silent suffering without complaint. Suddenly, my burden isn't as heavy.Movie Note:- What made this production so engrossing were co-leads, Stephen Rea as Burakov and Jeffrey DeMunn as the unrepentant serial murderer. Infusing incredible depth to their portrayals, these two actors captured the truest essence of their characters - giving us performances that were just incredible. A genuine testament to the art of acting.Really shocking to learn that neither Rea or DeMunn were nominated for an acting award. In fact, it was fellow performer Donald Sutherland, as Colonel Mikhail Fetisov, that garnered the praise of both critics and award groups.Don't get me wrong, I happen to love Sutherland. And his work here was good. Not exceptional, but good. Which, in my eyes, makes more damnable the artistic crime that the two co-leads weren't properly recognized for their stunning effort on this project.

A great movie about the inside workings of the Russian police. What trials and tribulations the detective went through to solve this case. Donald Sutherland is superb as the detective's superior. Highly recommend this.

Years ago I had occasion to be present during some important moments during the Beltway Sniper case. I realized, seeing what I saw and hearing what I heard, that the investigation into the murders was being deliberately compromised for political reasons. This later came out, in a muted fashion, in the press, but to this day the public has very little awareness that the case could have been wrapped up much sooner, and many lives saved, if the cops had simply been allowed to do their job. Sadly, it seems this problem goes the world over, even to the old Soviet Union, where if nothing else, you'd at least have expected the police to work efficiently!CITIZEN X is the story of Andrei Chikatilo (Jeffrey DeMunn), a Russian factory worker who on the surface appears to be a failure at absolutely everything in life. Actually Andrei is quite good at one thing - murder. He prowls the railways, looking for victims to sexually assault and then murder, or murder and then sexually assault - Andrei is so sexually frustrated he doesn't much care. As the bodies pile up around rural train stations in the backwaters of the Soviet Union, a brilliant but socially awkward forensics investigator, Viktor Burakov (Stephen Rea) is put on the case. Burakov rapidly concludes that the corpses are the result of a serial killer, but Soviet ideology, in the person of local Party boss Bondarkchuk (Joss Ackland) insists that serial killings are the result of Western, capitalist decadence and can't possibly occur in the Worker's Paradise. Burakov finds an extremely unlikely friend and ally in his police superior, Colonel Fetisov (Donald Sutherland), a buck-passing, butt-covering apprachnik who slowly begins to admire, and then to imitate, his relentless subordinate. Joining the team belatedly, but with great effect, is a brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Bukhanovsky (Max von Sydow), whose psychological profile of the killer proves to be an invaluable tool in casting the net to catch him.CITIZEN X continues the long tradition of superior, character-driven movies produced by HBO Films. The settings look and feel authentic Soviet, and the process of watching forensic science evolve in front of your eyes is fascinating. The acting too is first rate; veteran Jeff DeMunn manages to take a character who on the surface is the soul of evil and make him seem more pitiable than frightening. Likeiwse, Stephen Rea does a good job of portraying a man under unbearable psychological stress, while Donald Sutherland, who can be annoyingly inconsistent as an actor, is at his best as a bureacrat who discovers that he has a soul. Radu Amzuelescu also has an interesting turn as Rea's cop-assistant Federenko, who develops a grudging respect for a boss he initially regards as a feckless scientist.One of the funny things about law enforcement is its universiality. Cops are basically cops the world over, and deal with the same pressures and stresses regardless of the country in which they serve. In my own career I saw firsthand how political correctness can cost lives, but also how dogged police work, often carried out in the face of official interference, and can save them. CITIZEN X reminds us that for every clock-punching, donut-eating Clancy Wiggum out there, there is also a Burkov - a man obsessed with putting the bad guys out of business no matter what the cost to himself.

No issues with the item, arrived before due date.

An excellent film, very tragic, about a serial killer in Russia, who got away with so many murders of young children, because of Russia at that time reluctant to admit anything as dreadful as that could happen in Russia, and one mans fight to get justice done and catch the killer

Es un excelente artículo, muy buena película tiene subtítulos y doblaje al español, es importado código de región 1 hay que tener en consideración eso, por lo demás una muy buena película.

Un telefilm mais produit par la réputée HBO donc plutot haut de gamme, ne serait ce que par ses tetes d'affiche : Donald Sutherland, Stephen Rea et Max Von Sydow. La particularité de l'histoire est de se passer en Union Soviètique avant la chute du mur. Pour les autorités d'URSS un serial killer ne pouvait sévir dans le pays car c'était réservé à l'occident décadent. Un militaire et un policier se battant contre la lourde bureaucratie vont traquer cet ogre de Rostov, sur lequel d'autres films ont été tournés, et qui sera finalement reconnu coupable de 52 meurtres et viols. Interprétation sobre mais efficace. 4 / 5

1980年代に旧ソ連で発生した連続殺人事件を扱った 子供たちは森に消えた (ハヤカワ文庫NF) をベースに映画化されたものです。原作では犯人がなかなかわからないまま、苦闘する刑事たちの姿や当時のソ連警察の問題などを活写した傑作でした。それに対し本書は映画の序盤で既に犯人を明らかにしてしまっていたり、親族が被害者の刑事がチームに残されたり、色々脚色がされており、実際の事件を忠実に再現しているとは言いがたいのですが、それでも映画としてみると、ある程度のクォリティがあある不思議な映画だと思います。また実際の事件は凄惨なものですが、映画での表現はかなり抑えたものになっているのも好感が持てます。心理学者役のマックス　フォン　シドーはエクソシストの神父役以来20年ぶりに見ますが風貌があまり変わっていないことに2度びっくりです。 子供たちは森に消えた (ハヤカワ文庫NF)