CITIZEN X (1994)
A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003
Serials killers are often viewed as one of those phenomena that separate USA from any other country in the world. The sad truth is that the human depravity doesn't know of any national boundaries and that serial killers can be found in each corner of the world. The only difference is in the way media deal with those issues - someone who kills two or three housewives in an average American neighbourhood is more likely to be the subject of TV movie than someone who butchers hundreds of children in some God-forsaken Third World hellhole. It takes a particular set of circumstances for non-American serial killer to become a subject of an American film. One of such rare examples is title character of CITIZEN X, 1994 HBO docudrama written and directed by Chris Gerolmo.
The plot is based on the book KILLER DEPARTMENT by Robert Cullen and it deals with the case of a man who was for some time believed to be the world's most prolific serial killer. It all starts in early 1980s in Rostov, Southern Russia, where Lieutenant Burakov (played by Stephen Rea), forensic pathologist within Soviet Militia, must solve couple of particularly nasty murders. It soon turns out that the murders are work of a serial killer. When Burakov confronts his superiors with such conclusion and demands extra men and resources, they reject him, claiming that the serial killers exist only in depraved capitalist countries like USA. In the meantime, seemingly mild-mannered Andrei Chikatilo (played by Jeffrey De Munn) continues preying on drifters and little children. As years pass by and the bodycount steadily rises, Burakov gets increasingly frustrated with both with the lack of progress and the ineptness of Soviet bureacracy, but his immediate superior Colonel Fetisov (played by Max von Sydow) encourages him to continue his investigation.
Unlike many other American films that seem to be drowned in Cold War stereotypes, CITIZEN X, less burdened with ideological issues, uses the medium of police procedural to make so far the most convincing case against Communism. The dominant ideology of the Soviet Bloc had (or was believed to have) one great advantage over liberal democracies of the West - citizens were denied their personal freedom but in exchange they were provided with existential security in the form of free healthcare, free apartments etc. The all-powerful state with thousands of policemen with extraordinary powers was supposed to guarantee their personal safety. CITIZEN X, on the other hand, shows that security as an illusion. System that had suppressed individuality and promoted conformism proved unable to face new challenges, even if such challenge was nothing more than a single man whose murderous depravity was slightly higher than usual. The movie provides plenty of examples in which the system, based on the idea of people never raising waves, almost becomes Chikatilo's unwilling helper - anything that could have brought attention to some unpleasant truths about Soviet reality - prostitution, vagrant children or even murders itself - is ignored by bureaucrats who are more worried about looking inconspicuous in front of their superiors than actually doing their job.
This depressive reality is not only well-shown in the film (that uses Hungarian locations to provide Communist-era setting), but also on the face of the film's hero - Lieutenant Burakov. Stephen Rea uses low-key approach to plays that character, but this performance is one of the better moments in that actor's career. Donald Sutherland is also wonderful in the role of Soviet official who starts as standard bureaucratic villain only to slowly adopt Burakov's cause and begin fighting the System from within. Another good performance is given by Max von Sydow in the role of forensic psychiatrist, while Jeffrey De Munn in the role of villain with dual life - dull family man by day, homicidal monster by night - gives another example of the phenomenon known as "banality of evil". Other actors seem wasted, like Joss Ackland in the completely unnecessary role of Party bigwig; the film had hypocrisy of Soviet system already established and Ackland's cliched character was overkill. Good acting and well- constructed script wasn't accompanied by particularly good direction. Chris Gerolmo overused slow-motion and made some of the scenes unnecessary repetitive. However, CITIZEN X, with its intelligent and thought-provoking approach to seemingly over- exploited subject, is one of those hidden 1990s gems that deserves our attention.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
Review written on January 31st 2003
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
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