Synopsis
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) — watch online on iFILM: Franklin J. Schaffner's three-hour portrait of the last Romanov tsar, with Michael Jayston and Janet Suzman.
Tsar Nicholas II is a kind man with no appetite for ruling. While the war hollows out Russia and strikes turn into revolts, Rasputin (Tom Baker, unsettling throughout) tightens his hold on the empress Alexandra, who will try anything to ease their son Alexei's hemophilia. Janet Suzman plays Alexandra with enough force that her Oscar nomination made sense — she's the more commanding figure of the two, and the more willfully blind one.
Two Academy Awards went to the film's sets and costumes, and Laurence Olivier and Michael Redgrave fill out the supporting cast. Schaffner keeps clear of editorializing: the revolutionaries are right about the system and ruthless about the people inside it, and the tsar's downfall feels less like a political failure than a mismatch between a man and the moment history handed him. Stream Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) on iFILM.
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