Red Penguins: A Fascinating And Funny Look At Culture Clash And Captalism
Sports and politics collide in Red Penguins, the latest documentary from filmmaker Gabe Polsky, which tells the fascinating and unbelievably wild true story of capitalism and opportunism run amok in Moscow. Somewhat of a spiritual sequel to Polsky’s 2014 documentary Red Army, Red Penguins takes viewers on a brisk and bizarre journey, complete with gangsters, strippers, and live bears serving beer on a hockey rink.
Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the famed Red Army hockey team formed a joint venture that redefined what was possible in the new Russia. Eccentric marketing whiz, Steve Warshaw, is sent to Moscow and tasked to transform the team into the greatest show in Russia, attracting some of the biggest names in Hollywood and advertising along the way.
On December 25, 1991, the Soviet hammer and sickle flag ceased to rein over the Kremlin. Mikhail Gorbachev yielded his presidential office to the former chair of parliament Boris Yeltsin, marking an end to the USSR and ushering in a new era of freedom, democracy, and capitalism — or at least that was the idea. The dissolution of the Soviet Union left the Russian population reeling, stripping them of their pride and leaving them crippled by their newfound freedom (or as Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov says in the film, “When you give freedom right away, they don’t know what to do with it.”). The fall of the USSR also made a massive impact on the sporting world, and it would leave the famed Red Army hockey team, one of the best in the world, in financial ruin.
America was eager to bring a free market economy to Russia, but few dared to do business there due to the inherent risks and dangers. Only the foolish or brave pursued such conquests. Howard Baldwin, the owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins was one such madman, and he was intrigued by the concept of a Russian/American joint venture. In 1993, Baldwin bought a 50% interest in the struggling HC CSKA Moscow team (known in the West as the "Red Army”) and signed a management contract to run that club's arena. The aim was to provide the team with Western sponsorship and much-needed capital, but it would also give the Pittsburgh Penguins easy access to Russian players, who had begun to infiltrate the NHL. However, in order for Baldwin to achieve this, he would need a man crazier than him to oversee things in Moscow.
Enter Steven Warshaw, an eccentric marketing whiz known for his “special talent for generating firestorms in arenas.” Warshaw was courageous enough to serve as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ man in charge on the ground in Moscow, and he was instrumental in the Russian Penguins’ success. He quickly turned things around and garnered a global reputation for his on-ice antics, which included dancing girls (from the night club located directly below the rink), free beer night, and bears that served beer to patrons on the ice during intermissions, amongst other things. His working relationship with his Russian counterpart, Valery Gushin, was fraught with complications and clashes of culture, but it didn’t stop Warshaw from filling the stadium seats and even getting the attention of then Disney CEO Michael Eisner, whose primary interest in the team was a potential licensing deal for a new Mighty Ducks film.
Needless to say, this stranger-than-fiction, madcap tale is wild beyond belief and so insane that it must be true; however, it’s hard to say if everything presented in Red Penguins is 100% accurate. Some things are just left open-ended and unanswered; the Russians tell certain things one way, while the Americans tell them another — and Eisner (or anyone from Disney) declined to provide the Mouse’s side of the story. Director Gabe Polsky focuses on telling a narrow story (that of the joint venture between U.S. and Russia), which is briskly presented and hilariously fascinating, but in so doing, he misses the opportunity to present a wider array of voices. As energetic and entertaining as the story is, 80 minutes doesn’t seem long enough to tackle such an immense subject as it veers outside of the hockey rink and more into the arena of clashing cultures.
Combining still photos, animation, and a stockpile of amusing archival footage with talking heads, Polsky is able to tell a pretty fully-rounded and illuminating story, one which needed to be told. There are some incredible moments of comedy captured, but as Red Penguins’ lightness gives way to the serious, its entertaining quality begins to slowly deflate. Polsky explores the dynamic between Warshaw and Gushin as small-scale example for US/Russian relations at large, but he doesn’t probe deep enough or give that angle a satisfying conclusion, which some may find frustrating. Still, the untamed, quirky nature of this amazing story makes Red Penguins a pretty exhilarating ride that doesn’t only lend itself to hockey fans.
Recommendation: Whether you’re a fan of hockey, history, or insane true stories, Red Penguins has a lot to offer to everyone, and it serves up a wildly entertaining ride that you won’t soon forget.
Rating: 3.5 beer guzzling bears outta 5.
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