What's this about?

Lately, it seems like many of the movies/shows are just a rehash or reboot of things that have already been done. And so I started to dive into the past. It's been fun, but I find myself losing track of which ones I’ve seen and whether or not I enjoyed them. Sometimes the titles themselves just don't tell me enough to remember.

I wouldn’t have voluntarily watched a lot of these movies when I was younger. It’s strange how interests change. That goes for what I read, too. I have another blog that explores books. I’m mostly reading older fiction and memoirs, and some of the books have led me to movies/shows and vice versa. In those cases, I may post the book review over here as well.

There will be spoilers, which is different than my book reviews. That’s mostly because I want to have enough information to help me remember what I’ve seen. I’m getting older. The brain doesn’t cooperate like it used to. What can I say? The gray hairs are catching up with me!

Monday, November 6, 2023

Rasputin the Mad Monk - 1966

I like to watch Christopher Lee in movies. He's got this presence that just makes him fun to watch.

This is a fictionalized story of Grigori Rasputin, but some of the events are based on an account by one of the eventual assassins. Rasputin was a strange man who became close to the family of Tsar Nicholas II before the Russian Revolution. He was something of a mystic and starts the movie by saving an innkeeper's wife.

The monastery believes that his "powers" come from the devil, but the innkeeper wants to spare him since he believes that his wife is alive because of Rasputin. After that, the "healer" heads to St. Petersburg where he uses a woman to become close to the Tsarina. A certain set of people don't trust Rasputin. Eventually he goes too far, and his only "ally" turns on him.

This movie was something. I knew Rasputin was a crazy man, so that wasn't what threw me. He hypnotized a woman into pushing the boy off a ledge, but that's not the worst part. It looked like someone saw her do it, but they never said anything. She even gave a couple of strange looks at the woman, but they never addressed the event. My favorite had to be the end. Rasputin dies, but the end just shows his body on the ground. I suppose that's fine, but I really wanted to know how the man who owns the house is going to explain the three dead bodies. Christopher Lee did a good job looking and acting unhinged, but the overall experience was just a bit too odd for me.



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