Very disappointed :(

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

first time,I sale it in 1987, under Ceaușescu regime . and, more than the story itself, or the impressive performance of Lee Marvin, fascinating was the manner to reflect the Soviet system. sure, not extraordinary for a Romanian child of that period. but this kind of fascination remains, after decades,almost the same. because the story, dark, seductive, ambiguous, is less convincing today. too dramatic,too many clichés, using a lot of not real realistic pretextes, it seems be only sketch about a regime described in its appearances. only the rich American in Soviet Union with obscure business remains the good motif too see, again, this movie. but it is only the "sin" of Lee Marvin.

Like many of its contemporary competitors, the problem with this movie is that it runs too long. In fact, in all it's a needlessly ponderous, heavy-handed and slow-moving mystery thriller. James Horner has supplied a ponderously boom-boom music score, whilst Michael Apted's wearisomely heavy-handed and over-emphatic direction relies heavily on TV-style close-ups. Fortunately, the film is at its best in the action spots. These are well-staged and like the street scenes actually photographed in Helsinki and the movie's one bright character – namely the used car salesman – help to relieve the monotony induced by William Hurt's slowly drawn performance. Lee Marvin is not that much better, nor indeed is Ian Bannen or even the moderately attractive Miss Pacula. At one stage, it looks like we're going to be in for another of these unlikely partnership movies, but this relationship is not developed to any great extent. And maybe I wasn't listening carefully enough, but I thought the motive for the murder unsatisfactorily explained despite all the 128 minutes of talk, talk, talk! Available on an excellent M-G-M DVD.

Arkady (William Hurt) is a police officer in the former Soviet Union, in the early 1980's. One day, he is sent to Gorky Park, a popular outdoor site in Moscow, where three bodies, two male and one female, have been found. Curiously, their faces and fingertips have been "cut off", making identification very difficult. What horror. When the KGB arrives, very shortly, Arkady insists he wants to be removed from the case and let the secret police takeover, for he is merely a militia man. They say no and assign him the case. Tough luck. Working carefully, Arkady surmises that the three had been skating at the park, then led to a more secluded area and shot. One of them is, remarkably, an American, from the dental evidence, quite a shock. But, why were they disfigured? The skates of the woman lead to another lady, Irina (Joanna Pacula), for they are registered in her name. When Arkady meets Irina, she declares that she reported her skates stolen some time ago. But, digging further, the militia man learns that she was expelled from the university for political reasons. Soon, Arkady also discoveries the identities of the dead trio. Two were from Siberia and knew Irina and the American man was friends to all. Also connected to these four persons is a wealthy American furrier, Jack Osbourne (Lee Marvin), who deals in precious Russian sable pelts. As Arkady delves deeper and deeper into the killings, it becomes apparent that Osbourne might be a suspect and that the higher echelons of the Soviet government may be protecting him. But, why? Helping Arkady in the process is the American's brother (Brian Dennehy), a New York police officer who is of Russian ancestry and who arrives when he learns his brother is deceased. What a tangled web! Will Arkady live to secure justice, if the KGB is shielding Osbourne from investigation? This is still a fascinating film, made before the fall of the USSR. Its main elements of wintry weather, KGB, beautiful-but-fierce Siberian sables, dissidents, and murder provide a storyline that few can resist. Hurt, in one of his finest roles, is great as the Soviet police officer while Marvin makes a compelling villain. Pacula, a Polish actress making her American film debut, is lovely and touching. The rest of the cast, from Dennehy on down, is likewise most wonderful. The setting, in and around Moscow, is also worth a view, for it provides a glimpse into a Russia that is harshly beautiful. Costumes, gorgeous cinematography, an interesting score and a sure direction complete the makings of a fine, fine film. Why settle for dull television repeats when you can get your hands on this intriguing bit of semi-forgotten cinema? Why, indeed.

To my amazement, several IMDb reviewers seem to have problems with trivial issues such as Russians speaking British-English, or Finland being used as a location in stead of Russia. What is the point of discussing something that was politically unavoidable at the time ? Which western spy movie actually took place in Russia before the Wall came down ? Generally, Finland or Austria provided very good alternatives. This is true for Billion dollar brain or Enigma (1983) Wouldn't it be silly to write off every SF movie that is supposed to take place on Mars, simply because it was actually filmed on Planet Earth ? Frankly, the accent-issue too is absurd and irrelevant. I have a feeling some reviewers just want to show the world how observant they are. Whatever the Russians might have spoken, they would have found a reason to complain about it. If they would have used NY slang or English with a ridiculous Russian accent, they would have made fun of it. And if the Russians actually would have spoken Russian, probably the same people would be the first ones to have complained about the color of the subtitles on the snowy landscape, or the simplified translations.SPOILER ALERT: Curiously enough, none of these observant observers seem to have been intrigued by some weak points in Gorky Park's plot. For those who already have seen the movie, let's name a few ones: 1) The corrupt American fur importer Osborne is supposed to have excellent connections with KGB and the brass of the Militia. So why didn't he ask them to take care of his little problem ? He might even have earned some extra praise by his KGB buddies, for having been a finger man for such "dangerously deviant" individuals, as they surely would have been called in those Cold War days. In stead, he's doing the bloody work all by himself, in a happy-happy-Helloweenish way. 2) Osborne goes to great lengths to make identification of the bodies "impossible". How he managed to do so, without turning the white snow carpet in this remote spot of Gorky Park into a slaughterhouse scene remains a mystery. But OK, let's accept he's some kind of artist in this kind of work: all his prudence seems to have been superfluous, as within a few days, the 3 bodies are discovered. 3) Furthermore,quite ironically, this unusual way of skinning heads and fingers was like a "Killroy was here"-signature for Renko...4) To make matters even worse, Osborne's KGB and militia friends seem to be completely unaware of Renko's stubbornness. They don't make him stop in time his inquiry. This at a time when numerous jokes were told about how tight KGB-control were. Or don't you know why the KGB always operated in teams of 3 agents: one who could write, one who could read and one to keep an eye on those two dangerous intellectuals… Still, hold on... This is a movie after all… And as all reviewers know, the rules of the game of watching movies is to be able to not analyze everything so rationally, and to allow some part of silliness to pop up now and then. And if you're able to do this in Gorky Park, you'll really enjoy this movie. marvelous ! Hurt did a top notch job as the stubborn and honest police man, deliberately taking great risks to uncover the truth. Some people found his acting work quite "wooden" in this movie. Again, I'm sure that would he have been more exuberant, showing more emotions, the same people would have wondered why he was clowning his way through this movie, a la Robin Williams. Is it so difficult to understand that he's just portraying a very professional cop, the only one with a 100 % rate of resolving crimes he has been investigating. He's the son of an even more famous and respected Militia man, who could afford frivolities as being not well shaved, as Renko's superior complains. If he seems a somewhat 1-dimensional character, it is just because he's obsessed to do his job as good as his father would have done it. He's probably also very well aware that he's walking on eggs with his investigation. He's not at all sure his superiors will back him all the time, and he's understandably tense. I don't know, one could go on debating about it, and still not convince everyone. To me, Hurt found the right balance in playing his role of obstinate but also careful cop. Lee Marvin too was an excellent catch, giving Osborne all the arrogance and self-confidence he needed. The whole support cast too was fine, nobody over-acting in an irritant way, nor anyone lacking flair or talent. The specific angle of the storyline too is special. Not the triple murder part, but the fact that this is a US movie about an efficient Russian militia man, hunting down a corrupt US business man and killer. (See Telefon from 1977 for a similarly surprising plot). If you take into account that Gorky Park was filmed in the era of Reagan's "Evil empire" rhetoric, one will understand how surprising this movie must have been at the time. Finally: I was very pleased with the reviews on this movie, pointing out to some special cosmetics aspects (the special use of make up) of it, and the one making a link between the social status of the "Russians", and the different British accents they were using. The top brass indeed sounded somewhat snobbish, as they probably would have too if they would have spoken Russian. Once more, this underlines how efficient this movie uses whatever it can to lift the quality of it. 3 ½ stars out of 4.