Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Btexxamar I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

blanche-2 For a film that makes "100 Worst Films Ever Made" lists, The Assassination of Trotsky certainly is getting good reviews on this site. Not from me, though.Joseph Losey was an interesting director in that sometimes he was fantastic, as in The Servant and Mr. Klein, and sometimes he just missed the boat.He offered Trotsky to Dirk Bogarde, who hated the script and still didn't take it after Losey told him it would be rewritten. He offered Richard Burton the same script and the same promise. I'm certain that Losey didn't lie, but if this was a rewritten script, I'd hate to have seen the previous one.The film, however, does present a fairly accurate portrayal of Trotsky in exile in Mexico during the final months of his life in 1940 and has some artistic touches, most notably, the disturbing bullfight that parallels the actual assassination. Both were gruesome, but the bullfight was revolting and I had to fast forward through most of it. Kudos to Losey for showing what bullfights are really like, however.The film contains little dialogue, with the exception of Trotsky's dictation. Alain Delon, who received top billing, wears a beige suit and big sunglasses, looking like a silent Italian model while Romy Schneider screams at him. Also I swear to God that sometimes he was dubbed and sometimes he wasn't, as his voice sounded different in different scenes. The acting of Delon and Burton at the end of the film is fantastic. The way Mercader (Delon) is portrayed, he is unable to kill Trotsky at his first opportunity, and finally, after hesitation manages to do it, although clumsily. In real life he was a Stalin fanatic, dispatched in fact by Stalin to kill Trotsky, but this isn't shown in the movie. The characters are not fleshed out at all, which makes any connection to the happenings difficult.In real life, Mercader served 20 years in a Mexican prison. Upon release he eventually returned to Russia, where he was honored as a hero. He divided his time between Cuba and Russia until his death in 1978.For me this film did not hang together, and there was no character development. The script needed more detail. At 103 minutes, there was definite room for some character expansion and background.

Robert J. Maxwell When Joseph Losey gets his hands on the right material he can do wonders with it. This doesn't seem to have been the right material, or maybe Losey was just impatient with Burton's boozing or something.First, don't expect a biopic of Leon Trotsky, the stormy petrel of revolution. The title describes the assassination of Trotsky. He's a professorial sort, exiled to Mexico City after Stalin took over and betrayed Lenin's principles by playing footsies with Wall Street. It often happens with extremist ideologies that they split up, because everyone wants to be purer than the next guy. At that, Trotsky was lucky to get out alive. Stalin had ANYONE who represented a threat to his power murdered. Stalin went about, doing bad.It's an unpleasant movie. We have to sit through a bullfight and learn why movies usually don't show us the final coup, after which the bull drags himself around vomiting blood until he flops down, while the crowd cheers. I know -- the bravery and grace of the matador and all that, but why don't they just let the bull go? Sometimes there is a thin line between beauty and baseness. I understand why the scene was included. The matador does to the bull what Alan Resnais does to Burton, more or less. And instead of dying a neat Hollywood death, Burton staggers up from his chair, a hole in his skull, stares at Resnais and shrieks bloody murder.There are long periods in which we watch Mexicans doing nothing in particular. And the scenes can be confusing. It's not always easy to tell what's going on. The musical score appears to have been made by a thousand chirping electronic crickets. Lots of talent and momentous intentions gone awry.

Theo Robertson Regardless of your opinion of him there's no doubt that one of the most charismatic figures of the 20th Century has been Leon Trotsky . A fiercely intelligent and complex man , he became a revolutionary leader with the Bolshevik Party and founded The Red army . Part pragmatist , part maverick he found himself the victim of internal party politics over how to consolidate and spread communism and found himself exiled after arguing against Stalin's " socialism in one country " but today is still remembered though it should be pointed out if you're a middle aged bloke with a beard and specs you're going to find yourself surpassed by Dr Ernesto " che " Guevara being a young dusky Latino with mucho sexo appeal . I've always found it strange why every photo I've seen of Guevara seems to differ from that poster of him and why people make money selling his poster but hey that's revolutionary showbusiness . Che had the looks and Trotsky had the charisma and perhaps we should congratulate Joseph Losey for making a dull movie about a charismatic revolutionary Yup this film demands to be seen .I think It was broadcast once on BBC 2 as a tribute to Richard Burton who had just died . With hindsight one can't help thinking perhaps THE KLANSMAN might have been a better tribute since it's more typical of Burton , slumming it in a laughably poor film and while being poor there's nothing laughable about this movie which just feels like a series of unconnected scenes edited together the vast majority of which go unexplained . Take for example the scene where a bunch of Mexicans stick on police uniforms and go round to Trotsky's hacienda and shoot it up , then run away again . What was that about ? I have no idea and to be honest you could cut out 90 per cent of the footage and re-edit it in any random order and it'd still have the same narrative sense to it The film ends with Trotsky being murdered by Stalinist agent Frank Jacson ( Oh I didn't ruin it for you did I ? ) who in reality was a Spanish communist called Ramon Mercader . Why did he murder a socialist calling for worldwide revolution instead of say staying in Spain killing flanagists led by Franco you ask ? It's never explained and Alain Delon spends the entire film looking mean and moody so much so you'd think he was auditioning for a role as Che Guevara - after he died because I've seen corpses show more interest in roles than Delon has in this film . As a footnote when he was released from prison after his twenty year sentence Mercader went to live in Cuba as a guest of Fidel Castro . Why didn't he go to the Soviet Union instead ? I'm not sure but it might be because Merceder didn't speak any Russian and seeing as Castro recently invited Pope Benedict on a state visit to Cuba it's obvious Castro's Cuba is home to anyone

austrianmoviebuff To sum it up in one sentence: A forgettable movie, but a forgivable mistake.Losey. Burton. Delon. Schneider. Cortese. Trotsky. A bunch of great names, thrown into the depths of a weak script that wants to be both, a history lesson and an entertaining political thriller. Shot on location in Mexico and Rome, this European co-production was groomed for international success and turned out to be a devastating disappointment for everyone involved. The audience couldn't cope with it and stayed away, the critics weren't impressed.The film chronicles the last days of Trotzky (Richard Burton) as a political refugee in Mexico City. Alain Delon tries to play Frank Jacson, a Belgian traveling on a Canadian passport, who murders the dedicated Marxist and atheist.It is only for a few precious moments that you can partially perceive Losey's talent which he has proved elsewhere (i.e. in "The Servant", "A Doll's House" or "Accident"), and Delon's performance is vain and unconvincing. (The English language clearly overdrew the actor's abilities.) The Losey/Delon team did much better a couple of years later with "Monsieur Klein".