Line #33 YMMV/TheDeathOfStalin


1	* AdaptionDisplacement: The film is based on a French graphic novel of the same name, ''La mort de Staline''. The film's star power, critical success and effective LighterAndSofter use of satire have made it much better known than the source material.
2	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
3	** Is Molotov really a blind Stalinist, or just a very dedicated survivor?
4	** Does Timaschuk have actual medical training? Is she just a NKVD agent assigned to watch doctors, or is she an actual competent medical doctor victimized by Beria, who can't examine Stalin herself because the Committee would rather have him looked after by bottom of the barrel doctors, [[DeliberateValuesDissonance so long as they are male]]?
5	** Was Maria Yudina's insult letter to Stalin an attempt to commit suicide, or did she assume it wouldn't have any consequence because of its sheer audacity?
6	** During the KangarooCourt scene, Beria is angrily protesting the charges he's being accused of, until Khrushchev starts reading out the names of the underaged girls he violated over the years, which reduces Beria to a StunnedSilence. Was it a MyGodWhatHaveIDone reaction to being reminded of his horrifying acts of perversion, or just Beria realizing that, unlike the other, clearly trumped-up charges he was being accused of, they had him dead to rights on this one, and that any slim chance of survival had just gone up in smoke? In RealLife, his sexual assaults were never brought up at his show trial, not that the members didn't know they were getting rid of a serial rapist in the process.
7	** Are Beria's executioners [[EvenEvilHasStandards genuinely horrified]] by his [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil sex crimes]] and brutality? Or are they power-hungry cretins who just want to save their hides while being not much better than Beria? Or is it a mix of both?
8	** After Khrushchev gives Malenkov the charge sheet with the detailed lists of all Beria's sexual assault victims, the latter turns and walks away. Is Malenkov doing this out of disgust at Beria's rapes? Out of disgust at the trial? Or just out of cowardice?
9	* AluminiumChristmasTrees:
10	** There was a real Dr. Lidiya Timaschuk who was a KGB informant, acted as the main witness of the Doctor's Plot, and was arrested when the case was abandoned. Everything else is presumably fictional.
11	** Besides Jason Isaacs' torso not being wide enough to comfortably accommodate all of the real-life Zhukov's decorations, the sheer ''number'' of them would have caused uninitiated viewers to see Zhukov more as a GeneralFailure with an unscrupulously-earned ChestOfMedals than as the FourStarBadass he really is.
12	* AmericansHateTingle: The Russian Government reacted ''very'' negatively to the movie, partially due to a push they were making at the time to improve the image of Stalin and the Soviet government, and [[BannedInChina banned it]]. A few theaters screened the film anyway in protest, to extremely mixed reactions from audiences -- at worst, they hated the film for making light of a dark time in their nation's history, taking liberties with historical accuracy, and NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent; at best, they considered it a flawed but somewhat entertaining satire of the Soviet Union's cutthroat politics.
13	* AwesomeEgo: Zhukov exudes a deserved arrogance on account of being the supreme leader for the victorious Red Army during World War II, and knows exactly how far he can push his political invulnerability in social circles when being a general {{troll}} and [[TheGadfly gadfly]]. His EstablishingCharacterMoment is him throwing open a trenchcoat to reveal a ChestOfMedals, demanding a drink and then holding his ground against Beria. In his very ''next'' scene he punches Vasily, Stalin's son, in the gut and kicks him while he's down, telling him to ''"Fucking'' behave!" and freely admitting what he did to Svetlana, who can't do a thing in response.
14	* CatharsisFactor: Deconstructed. Being the psycho that he is, Beria unquestionably deserves the pathetic death he receives. However, the lynch mob that does him in consists of similarly-wretched bastards who are also guilty of appalling crimes against humanity that, in any other situation, would have earned them the death penalty as well — something Beria [[VillainHasAPoint repeatedly points out]] during his [[KangarooCourt "trial"]], only to be ignored or shouted down. Beria's [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rapacious nature]] does [[EvenEvilHasStandards genuinely disgust them]], but that's secondary to the fact that him becoming ''de facto'' [[TheManBehindTheMan head of the Soviet Union]] [[ItsAllAboutMe would be problematic for them]].
15	* CompleteMonster:
16	** UsefulNotes/JosefStalin himself is the sociopathic, overly paranoid master of the Soviet Union. A cruel despot who trusts and loves none, Stalin is [[SmallRoleBigImpact responsible]] for nightmarish prison camps that hundreds of thousands have been sent to, tortured and eventually murdered. Stalin regularly sends out lists of individuals to be purged, along with their innocent families, and allows the wicked Lavrentiy Beria to operate with impunity. [[BadBoss Even his inner circle is not immune]], with the completely loyal Molotov set up to be murdered before Stalin's own death after Stalin had long imprisoned his wife.
17	** [[ManipulativeBastard Lavrentiy Beria]], the head of the [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre NKVD]], desires control over Russia, using his position to murder, torture, and [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape]] whomever he wants, regardless of age. After discovering that [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Stalin]]'s dead, Beria crafts his own enemy list to replace Stalin's, has the NKVD take over city security duties from the Soviet Army, and appoints weak-minded Deputy General Secretary Georgy Malenkov as Premier of Russia to be used as a political puppet. Refusing to allow Stalin's mourners into Moscow for his funeral, once 1,500 of them are slaughtered by his soldiers, he instead [[NeverMyFault blames the mourners]] for being there against his orders, and refuses to allow his NKVD troops to act as scapegoats for fear that it'll tarnish his reputation.
18	* CrossesTheLineTwice:
19	** Some of the constant and casual executions end up becoming this, something shocking in a modern society but portrayed as just business as usual in a totalitarian state.
20	--->'''Molotov:''' Stalin would be loving [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder this]].
21	** Molotov is this all the time. He denounces his wife as a traitor when Beria attempts to buy him by releasing her, exclaims that Stalin would love the Committee ganging up on Beria, and takes a piss while Beria is being arrested in the bathroom. [[FridgeBrilliance Remember Malenkov and Beria's earlier exchange about pissing?]]
22	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Everyone is great, but many have singled out Creator/JasonIsaacs' scenery-chewing performance as General Zhukov. It helps that Zhukov is probably the [[TokenGoodTeammate least morally ambiguous]] of the Soviet elite.
23	* GeniusBonus: After an underage maid was raped by Beria, the girl is returned to her parents with a bouquet of flowers. In real life, Beria gave his rape victims bouquets of flowers after raping them. If they accepted, he took this as a sign that the sex was "[[BelievingTheirOwnLies consensual]]" and released them. If not, [[UnPerson he made them disappear]].
24	* HilariousInHindsight:
25	** Malenkov telling Khrushchev and his supporters to "kiss [his] Russian ass" becomes this for those who remember [[Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas another character]] played by Creator/JeffreyTambor being tricked into kissing a dog's ass.
26	** This is not [[Film/Oblivion2013 the first time]] that Creator/OlgaKurylenko and Andrea Riseborough have played two women on the opposite sides of a crisis.
27	** Zhukov beating Vasily become this when considering some ''Franchise/StarWars'' fans were unhappy Creator/RupertFriend replaced Creator/JasonIsaacs as the Grand Inquisitor in ''Series/ObiWanKenobi''.
28	** All the comparisons made between this film and ''Film/DrStrangelove'' becomes this when Armando Iannucci was announced to be adapting ''Dr. Strangelove'' on stage in 2024.
29	* MagnificentBastard:
30	** UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev begins as one of UsefulNotes/JosefStalin's inner circle, playing a delicate game to survive his insane leader's violent whims. Upon Stalin's death, Khrushchev enters into a power struggle with the monstrous [[TheSociopath Lavrentiy Beria]] who usurps his plans to free political prisoners and restore the church. Upon realizing the [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre NKVD]] has replaced the Red Army, Khrushchev orders the borders reopened so the resulting flood of people trigger the NKVD to violence, killing many people and ruining Beria's public image. Khrushchev then has Beria arrested after allying with [[FourStarBadass Georgy Zhukov]] of the Red Army and organizes Beria's complete downfall, show trial and execution to eventually take total control of the Soviet Union and reform it.
31	** [[FourStarBadass Field Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov]] is the [[LargeHam bombastic]] war-hero head of the [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets Soviet Red Army]]. First introducing after the NKVD replaces the Red Army in security and announcing "I'm smiling but I am very fucking furious," Zhukov wastes no time in putting the sniveling Vasily Stalin in his place. Upon hearing Nikita Khrushchev's plans, Zhukov [[TheGadfly takes the chance to tease him]] before assisting his plot to see the fall of Lavrentiy Beria, gleefully punching out the sadistic rapist before initiating his plot to completely purge the NKVD and see Beria executed.
32	* MemeticMutation: Khrushchev's "ruling"/PreMortemOneLiner to Beria has gained popularity with viewers who often change it around to suit dissenters in fandoms or communities.
33	-->''"You are accused of treason and anti Soviet behavior. The court finds you guilty and sentences you to be shot."''
34	* MoralEventHorizon: While many of the characters in the movie aren't exactly pillars of virtue, [[ManipulativeBastard Lavrentiy]] [[TheDragon Beria]] takes the cake as a ManipulativeBastard who [[LackOfEmpathy ordered the deaths of many people, with or without Stalin's behest,]] and [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil molested women and children]]. As a result, many of the Politburo members found [[EvenEvilHasStandards disgust for Beria]].
35	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
36	** Since Aleksei Kapler was actually alive in 1953, Beria could have released him (or claim his intention to) as a way to get Svetlana firmly under his grip and use her against Khrushchev. However, the movie's Beria claims that he was KilledOffForReal in 1949, and there is no benefit for him to lie about it, so it must be true within the movie's universe.
37	** One of the doctors arrested during ThePurge noticed that something was weird when the interrogators suddenly and unexpectedly switched from usual "who are your foreign friends?" questions to medical-related questions. As funny as the abduction of the old doctor from the streets is in the movie, such scene would fit the absurdist BlackComedy of the movie to a T.
38	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: It’s a little hard to root for Maria in the opening scene. While it is sad that she has lost most of her family and friends to Stalin’s regime, her refusal to play the concerto for Stalin isn’t just rebellious, [[ItsAllAboutMe but is also putting everyone in the building in danger of being executed]]. Her trolling of the conductor (which leads to him fainting and knocking himself out) comes off as pretty cruel when you remember that literally everyone is terrified of Stalin. The fact that she only relents when offered a lot of money doesn’t make this much better. Assuming the concert even happened (the book that mentions it is not considered a reliable source) in real life Maria didn't do any of this, as she knew that the lives of others was more important than her own integrity; and her note to Stalin was not an insult but a response to his paying her for the performance, saying that she had donated the money to her church and begging him to see the light and change his ways.
39	* TheWoobie: Poor Molotov has to keep bleating about how his wife deserved to be executed and is horrified when he learns that Stalin had him also lined up for death. He insists to Khruschev that he must have done something terrible to Stalin. When Molotov is later chastised by Beria in the Hall of Columns he walks away on the verge of tears.
40	----
41	!!Comic Book
42	* CompleteMonster: [[FourEyesZeroSoul Lavrentiy Beria]], chief of the [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre NKVD]] and Stalin's personal attack dog, quickly [[TheStarscream moves to try and ensure Stalin's death]] when the former dictator falls into a coma to consolidate his own power. Beria has countless people tortured and executed in the depths of the nation's [[TheGulag gulags]], while ruthlessly buying off or otherwise attempting to silence his political opposition, attempting to frame Khruschev to have him bear the brunt of his treason to the nation. Beria is also a disgusting SerialRapist who treats his violent assaults with a bored, hobbyist mentality, reacting with mild irritation when a phone call interrupts him in the middle of a session while ordering the woman's father arrested right after.

Context YMMV / TheDeathOfStalin