One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Part 8 of 10)

Caspar Wrede's profoundly stark and bleak yet rarely seen adaptation of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's classic novel.

Released in 1970, the film faithfully presents a single day in the life of Ivan Denisovich - superbly portrayed by Tom Courtenay - who is serving a ten year prison sentence in one of Soviet Russia's infamous Siberian gulags.

Category:

Film & Animation

[jordanatack]

press it down....... press it down

[mcleanartists]

@unclejuniorsoprano "is."

[unclejuniorsoprano]

@themodernwarhol Thanks for noticing. Solzhenitsyn gets into minute detail in his 2ng Gulag book; the thick one w/black dust jacket. He talks about "last leggers" and about being "perched;" forced to sit atop a pole for hours. Your body weight caused to pole to be driven up your ass. The pain was unbearable, but you didn't dare fall off your perch or you'd be shot. This was just 1 a many sadistic games. Everything was done for the good of the cause. Indeed, the USSR was an evil empire.

[themodernwarhol]

@unclejuniorsoprano Yes, quite gripping! I'm not too sure about some of those points on how he survived scurvy or the razors; he doesn't elaborate on those points; quite observant of you.

[unclejuniorsoprano]

@themodernwarhol As for the guard's food. I believe they probably stole a lot from the parcels from the zeks; like that kielbasa that that guard took a huge bite out of. That was a powerful scene. The guard just opened up the jar of jam & can of what looked like apple butter & emptied them into the zek's bag. along with everything else. How disgusting that must have been. I wonder if the zeks ever ate rats. I don't remember Solzhenitsysn ever mentioning that. A very disturbing movie.

[unclejuniorsoprano]

@themodernwarhol Thanks. I read the book in 1978 & still have 2 copies in my bookshelf, along with of the other Solzhenitsyn books including Aug. 1914, I just couldn't remember some of the finer points such as shaving. If they used a straight razor, how did the guards manage this & how did they keep them sharp. I would think it would take several hours of supervised time. Also, how did Shukov recover from scurvy with no vitamin C. Scurvy is usually fatal. Pellagra is even worse.

[themodernwarhol]

@unclejuniorsoprano Very true, in the novel it mentions that Shukov actually survived an attack of scurvy in the past like other men and that's the explanation for his missing teeth. In the novel it also mentions that they would shave at different intervals during the week but Shukov mentions that it is a waste to shave since there's nobody to shave for. The novel doesn't really explain what the guards eat, but I'm guessing they eat the same as the prisoners but in larger portions.

[unclejuniorsoprano]

Questions I have:

How can they survive so long with no vitamins from their food? Must have been a high rate of scurvy & pellagra.

How did they shave? What did the guards eat?

[Arelak]

@Allanlegacy43 It is how they treated the prisoners, absolute garbage, like pigs, animals. The soviets (socialists) did all they could to be as cruel as they could to their prisoners. Read Alexander Solchenietzin's Gular Archipelago that or read the book this movie was based on.

[unclejuniorsoprano]

You'd think the food must have been gourmet the way the zeks charged the commissary . Tonight's special: Gruel with Fish Heads, Stale Dinner Rolls, and Slop. I only wish that Stalin & Brezhnev could have dined there.