The Rider Named Death (2004); historical action drama film review

Poster artwork for the historical action drama film The Rider Named Death.

Revolutionary Rider by Linh

The Rider Named Death - Vsadnik po imeni Smert is based on a true story and adapted from Boris Savinkov's novel The Pale Horse. Savinkov was a leader of the terrorist faction of Russia's Socialist-Revolutionary Party and actively participated in killing Russian political figures. 

Director Karen Shakhnazarov masterfully crafts the novel's passion into the screen adaptation. His film is more about the individuals who engage in acts of terrorism rather than the result of terrorist acts. The Rider Named Death - Vsadnik po imeni Smert is a historical drama set in 1900s Russia where numerous cruel and cold blooded murders have shocked the nation. Many prominent Russian Government officials have been victims of terrorist attacks regardless of the high security surrounding them. The over-confident and fearless terrorists now have their sights on the Russian Royal Family, with the Duke a main target.

Andrei Panin plays the film's leading character George, who looks more like a James Bond/spy agent than a political assassin. George is a thinly veiled fictionalised portrayal of Boris Savinkov, and he leads an independent team of terrorists who are each motivated by different principles to commit acts or terrorism. Panin is terrific but strangely terrifying as a poker-faced killer, George. He shows some indifference to the fact that the people who he had chosen as his targets are also human beings, and is apathetic to everybody who does not serve his own violent interests.

SHARP SHOOTER: George (Andrey Panin) prepares to shoot the Duke at the opera in the film The Rider Named Death - Vsadnik po imeni Smert. Image: Kino International.

A member of George's terrorist team is the lovelorn Erna, the expert bomb-maker whose affections for George and her willingness to impress him keep her constantly on his side. Ksenia Rappoport is marvellous as the fanatical lover and the woman who George considers as useful for his cause and not his heart.

The beautiful and married Elena, is the woman who has won George's heart and is as distant and icy as he. Anastasia Makeeva has a minor role in the film as the lover, and their affair seems to be the only thing that makes George happy and relaxed.

Other members of George's team make up the rest of the supporting cast with Artyom Semakin as a wide-eyed student, named Vanya, a Christian idealist who refuses to bomb an aristocrat's carriage when children are present; Rostislav Bershauer as Fyodor, is a true anarchist, a hardened peasant who believes in the dissemination of terror as a general practice. 

The Rider Named Death - Vsadnik po imeni Smert is superbly filmed with wonderful performances from the cast.The film makes some important points about how people find terrorism as a way to express their dissatisfaction (which seems to be George's case); they gain power and eliminate their internal bitterness in ways that are very harmful towards other individuals and society in general. 

BOMBER: Erna (Ksenia Rappoport) declares her love to George (Andrei Panin) in the film The Rider Named Death - Vsadnik po imeni Smert. Image: Kino International.

Director: Karen Shakhnazarov

Writers: Aleksandr Borodyansky (screenplay), Karen Shakhnazarov (screenplay), Boris Savinkov (book The Pale Horse)

Cast: Andrei Panin, Rostislav Bershauer, Ksenia Rappoport, Artyem Semakin, Aleksei Kazakov, Anastasia Makeeva, Dmitri Dyuzhev, Valery Storozhik, Vasiliy Zotov

Producer: Karen Shakhnazarov

Cinematographer: Vladimir Klimov

Original Music Composer: Anatoli Kroll

Languages: Russian, French with English subtitles

Running Time: 1 hour and 46 minutes