Delayed Reaction: Nicholas & Alexandra

[Note: This is part of a project I'm calling "A Century in a Month". The idea is that I'm going to start with a movie from about 100 years ago and pick a series of connected films until I get to the present. The rules I set this time are release years, per IMDB, can't be more than 5 years apart. I can't repeat the same connection although I can reuse the same type of connection. That means if I use "movies directed by Scorsese" to connect two, I can't use Scorsese as a connection again but I can use a director as a linking element again. I'm not really sure why I'm doing this, but it seems like a fun game.]

Connection to You Only Live Twice: Cinematography by Freddie Young

 

Premise: The story of the last Czar of Russia and his family.

 

The purpose of this “Century in a Month” project is context. By moving in chronological order and with connected films I’m inherently tracking the evolution of the medium. Nicholas & Alexandra is a film that is really interesting in the larger context of the world at the time. It’s probably the last big 60s epic, despite the year it came out. Starting around 1956 with The Ten Commandments, the Hollywood studios flexed their might with a series of epics like Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, and Cleopatra. By 1971, that type of movie wasn’t working as well as it used to. The New Hollywood movement shifted the focus from auteur producers to auteur directors. The look of epics was splitting. 1972 put that in sharper focus with The Godfather and The Poseidon Adventure representing both ends of the spectrum. Nicholas & Alexandra feels really outdated. Like a David Lean epic that he forgot to make earlier. It’s really not a surprise that producer Sam Spiegel made this because he couldn’t get to work with David Lean on Dr. Zhivago.

 

That isn’t to say this Nicholas & Alexandra is a failure. The cast is huge and impressive. The film looks expensive. It got 6 Oscar nominations in some of the biggest categories. It was a success, but it feels like a throwback success. Like when The Irishman pulls in a bunch of Oscar nominations now. There’s an “Oh, we’re still doing that?” feeling to it.

 

It’s strange to me that for as huge as the cast is, I know so few of the names. Jumping out, I know Laurence Olivier, Brian Cox, and Ian Holm. Just about everyone else I don’t know by name alone. I’m not sure how much of that was felt at the time. Did this feel like a huge cast of generational stars? A kind of movie you’d watch in a decade and notice a bunch of A-listers and Oscar winners looming (Think 2012 Anna Karenina or 2005 Pride and Prejudice). Or at the time was it clear they weren’t getting first choices in any roles?

 

Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend