CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
A film review by Jun Yan
Copyright 1997 Jun Yan
It's Australia, 1953. A young, attractive college student Joan (played by Judy Davis) is a passionate communist firmly believes in the Soviet Union and the world-famous figure Joseph Stalin. Although without much support in her own world, she stands by her faith and writes letters to Stalin with all her admiration. They somehow get to catch Stalin's eyes (Stalin played by Murray Abraham, who in no way reminds me of Stalin at all in his appearance despite his chunky nose). The next thing we know, she's on her way to Moscow and has a one-night-stand with him which both kills him with a heart attack and inpregnated her. Back to Australia, Joan marries her puppy lover Zackery Welch (played with ease by Geoffery Rush) and makes him swear never tell anyone he's not really her boy's father.
The boy, Joseph Welch, grows up with a strange interest in going to jail, and he does finally, for refusing to register in the army to go to Vietnam. Although brain-washed by his mother all his life about the greatness of Communism and Stalin, he does later recognizes the ugly truth of his father. He seems to be a sweet natured kid at first. However, as time passes by, he slowly develops an appetite for power and dominance and becomes alarming like one certain famous historical figure.
As a political satire, the film definitely shows its weakness in dealing with the reality of the Soviet Union and Stalin. All the scenes in Moscow with Stalin and his guards/followers fall into the level of forced comedy that's not very funny. But the parts with Joan and people surrounding her and her passion for Stalin as well as Communism are quite amuzing -- at least to me, who grew up in a Communist country yet am never convinced and converted of the idea. She is more of a comical and pitiful figure than a force that persuades anyone.
Other characters in the film are less one-dimensional and more interesting. The passive, good-hearted husband Welch, the secretive (at least trying hard to be secretive) KGB/Secret Service Man and double agent David (played with understated humor by Sam Neil) who has a crush on Joan and fantacizes being Joe's father, and Joe's police officer wife, Anna, who gets into dating him by repeated arresting him in anti-Vietnam war protests. This is probably the funniest and most genuine part of the film and gains much chuckles from the audience. They are not simplified personalities that we've seen in other films and they keep me interested.
The plot itself is not that intersting and engaging. The writer does not seem to have made up his mind as to what would be the theme or central issue of the film. Ideas are not developed and story lines scatter all over the place without a clear destination. A clear example is the transformation of Joe Welch as his hunger for power and control grows. He is a sweet kid when he grows up and dates Anna. He clearly recognizes Stalin's brutality and cruelty. He even saves a prison officer's life risking his own. Even as he slips down the slope into the like of his father, he still tells his mother that all her faith is meaningless and useless. However, the filmmaker never makes clear just what his ultimate intentions are. He said it's a "revolution." But his own cynicism and disbelief in Communism hardly support that claim. And the finale is strange and illogical.
I certainly had some good chuckles out of this film, but it's hardly a refined piece of work. I give it a C+.
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