This Is Not The History Channel

If you simply saw this title, you would figure it's a documentary on the History Channel.   And a real snooze.

Guess again, comrades.  "The Death of Stalin" is one of the funniest comedies you will see in a long time.   This is no boring history lesson.   This is a movie reminiscent of the screwball yarns you might expect from directors Preston Sturges or Howard Hawks.

And who doesn't want to laugh at Russians these days?   When you get a load of the Russkies in this film, you would be hard pressed to believe they had the IQ to tamper in anybody's national election.  Sadly enough, as I researched some of the events that are chronicled in this movie after I saw it, I realize the film maker Armando Iannucci, did not stray too far from the cold, hard facts.   He just made it funny.   Because it's all real life which, frankly, is usually hysterical.

It's 1953 and Grandpa Joe Stalin is running roughshod over the Soviet Union. If he doesn't like what you do or how you play the piano, you're liable to be pulled away in the dead of night and shot.  Meanwhile, Stalin spends most of his time joking around with his General Assembly AKA Cabinet.   That includes the future leader of it all, one Nikita Khrushchev, played deliciously by the always reliable Steve Buscemi.  

Well, Stalin has a cerebral hemorrhage and collapses in a puddle of his own piss.  He ain't dead, but he's almost there and all his advisers try to figure out what to do next.   The scene where they all pick him up off the floor to lay him down in his bed is worthy of any Three Stooges short you have ever seen.   

Meanwhile, all of his aides are jockeying for space and political favor.   What happens if Stalin dies?  Who's in charge?   Well, looking at this motley crew, nobody really.   

As history would have it, Stalin does buy the Russian farm and then there's the public funeral that must be conducted.   More hysteria and in-fighting from the aides.   Throw in the head of the Soviet Army and Stalin's adult children and you wind up with some of the biggest laughs on screen in a very long time.

There are a lot of wonderful set pieces in this brilliant comedy that will find you aching with laughter.   But, when you go home and check Wikipedia to discover that most of this stuff really did happen, you laugh all over again.

And you are once again reminded how truly inept our world leaders really are.

LEN'S RATING:  Three-and-a-half stars.

Dinner last night:  Barbecue chicken drumsticks and Brussels sprouts with caramelized onions.