Krasnaya Palatka (The Red Tent) Reviews

A surprising historical story that I knew nothing about. An Italian Zepplin that went to the North Pole, only to be wrecked and its crew stranded makes for an interesting story. Then to tell it from the prespective of the captain looking retrospectively was interesting as he put himself on trial against his imaginary peers was creative.

The speech at the end was interesting about who and what leaders are, and that when you become a leader you no longer can be human if you want to be successful. For when you do you compromise your judgement.

It did lack though with engaging me past the building of the Red Tent. Many of the decisions made seemed rash and illogical. Then again these may have been the exact actions of the crew historically, and for that it can be excused. Additionally, many of the character embellishments were irelevant and for that I also lost interest.

Connery being heralded as the main draw was over exagerating his relatively small role as Amundsen, he is only in the last half of the movie after a one minute shot in the beginning. The real lead was Kruger.

A rather entertaining, dream-like and very original Italo-Russian co-production about a bunch of Arctic explorers that find themselves trapped in the snowy desert under a red tent.

A nice examination on the nature of leadership and heroism. The expository approach of the trial could have been better handled in the confines of the story and there could have been a clearer delineation between the questions of military leadership and glory hunting. Over all a good approach and a beautifully shot film.