This movie was an "HBO Original," meaning as we all know that it was never theatrically released. It is a TV movie, as only HBO seems to manage. However, I never saw it on HBO; Mike, my husband, had it on video (yes, as in VHS) and introduced me to it after we became an "item." (Another one of his peculiar 'date movie' choices, along with Trainspotting and The Bruce Lee Story….perhaps I should have been worried….)
The movie is the dramatization of a true story, the hunt for Andrei Chikatilo, one of the world's most prolific serial killers, unfortunately. He had the good luck (for him) of being born in the U.S.S.R., which you may or may not remember as the dreaded and evil Russian Communist Republic. Dreaded and evil it may have been, but poor and disorganized it most certainly was, and the hunt for this monster went on for years as the detective assigned to find him went begging for staplers and autopsy equipment. Essentially, the higher ups did not want to admit that the USSR could have any serial killers - a supposedly "Western" problem - and therefore took pains to keep the search for this one under wraps. Meanwhile, over 50 young girls and boys died over a period of 20 years.
The excellent actor Stephen Rea stars as the chief detective, and Donald Sutherland puts in a surprisingly good turn as a Russian military officer who oversees the manhunt. The story is highly dramatized from the truth, and if you read about the real manhunt you will realize that the movie is basically fiction, but what the hell, it is a cracking good yarn, as they say. More interesting than even the true crime story, though, is the relationship between Rea's and Sutherland's characters, who start out at odds but end up aligned as if two sides of the coin. Max von Sydow puts in a small turn as a helpful psychiatrist, and it is worth waiting for his final and wonderfully obscure comments about Rea's and Sutherland's characters.
It makes the count of one of my top ten movies because of how well the story is told, and because I love the theme of the underdog (the detective) persevering under the most ridiculous of obstacles (the U.S.S.R.) in order to triumph over a truly, magnificently evil person (Andrei Chikatilo). Call me shallow and call me a sophist, but damnit I LIKE it when the good guys win! Blame it all on watching too many John Wayne films in my youth…..
At IMDB: Citizen X
