"Red Penguins" is a documentary that recounts the culture clash between Americans and Russians over the Russian national hockey team in the 1990s.
Bringing professional hockey to Russia after the Iron Curtain fell might seem as easy as scoring on an open net. But in the documentary “Red Penguins,” the attempt was more like trying to score on a giant, menacing goalie — who might kill you if you get too close.
Gabe Polsky’s previous film “Red Army,” about a nearly unbeatable Soviet team defecting to the United States, was much more a documentary about hockey. “Red Penguins,” on the other hand, is a movie about business, and what can go wrong when cultures clash over a big pile of money. The movie is available on video-on-demand from VUDU, Google Play, Amazon Video, iTunes and other streaming sites.
The film is chock full of colorful, larger-than-life figures on both sides of the East-West divide, and it’s fun to guess what actors would play which characters in a Hollywood movie version of the same story. My money is on Sam Rockwell to play Steven Warshaw, the bombastic, frizzy-haired executive who was at the center of the storm. In 1992, after Communism fell, Russia’s once-feared national hockey team was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Like many American companies looking to make inroads in the suddenly open Russian market, the Pittsburgh Penguins saw an opportunity. They bought a 50 percent financial stake in the beleaguered Russian team, reasoning they could cajole American sponsors into spending money on the team in Moscow, and use the team to groom the best Russian players for a career in the NHL.
Warshaw was the point man to go to Moscow and convert the national team into a professional, American-style franchise nicknamed the “Red Penguins.” What he found was an arena falling into disrepair, workers living full-time in the skyboxes, and a team that would have no money at all had the owners not been running a strip club in the basement after hours.
Warshaw, a born dealmaker and storyteller, entertainingly recounts his tireless, often wacky efforts to whip the team into shape and fill the empty stands by any means necessary, even if that meant turning the strippers into cheerleaders or bringing live bears onto the ice between periods. His ideas clash in ways large and small with his Russian counterparts; the guy hired to play the Penguins mascot kept taking his mask off during games so that people would recognize him.
A more serious clash came about when, as the team started finally making money, the Russian Mafia wanted their share of the action. When Polsky questions team general manager Valery Gushin about Mafia interference, he laughs long and heartily on camera. But doesn’t deny it.
What was happening in the arena was emblematic of what was happening in the rest of Russia, as organized crime rushed in to fill the power vacuum left behind by the departing Communists. “What you call the Mafia, we call the system,” one Russian tells Polsky.
But the film suggests that America may have played in a role in Russia’s slide into corruption as well, by flooding the country with capitalist money before it was equipped to handle it. “Red Penguins” spins an entertaining tale of corruption and culture clashes, but it’s ultimately a cautionary tale about the corrosive power of money.
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August 07, 2020 at 11:45PM
https://madison.com/ct/entertainment/movies/red-penguins-spins-an-entertaining-story-of-money-murder-and-hockey/article_ef1706b7-5fa3-5a25-bf24-9b57671f21d8.html
'Red Penguins' spins an entertaining story of money, murder and hockey - Madison.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=Red&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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