THE RUSSIAN FIVE: A Worthy Addition To The Pantheon Of Great Sports Stories

If you’re a hockey fan (like me), one of the best times of the year is the NHL playoffs. It’s hard to top the drama of each elimination series, especially when games have the potential to go to multiple overtimes. As players get more exhausted and more desperate, almost anything can happen. And the entertainment value only increases when your team is unfortunate enough to not make the postseason; then, you can partake in all of the excitement without any of the anxiety. (At least, that’s what I tell myself…)

However, if that’s not enough for you, a new documentary in theaters should considerably whet your appetite for hockey-related drama – both on and off the ice. Directed by Joshua Riehl, The Russian Five tells the story of the first five Russian hockey players to play as a unit together on the ice in the NHL. Together, they overturned American and Canadian stereotypes about players from the Soviet Union and led the long-suffering Detroit Red Wings to two consecutive Stanley Cups in the 1990s. The Russian Five chronicles how these players escaped the Soviet Union, adapted to a new country, and eventually achieved hockey immortality.

Bringing “Dead Wings” Back To Life

The Detroit Red Wings were founded in 1926 and achieved great success in their first two decades, but by the late 1980s, they were deep into a decades-long Stanley Cup drought. Nicknamed “the Dead Wings,” the team hadn’t won a championship since 1955. Desperate to get back to winning ways, the team brought in Jim Devellano, one of the masterminds behind the New York Islanders’ streak of Stanley Cups in that decade, as general manager. Devellano’s great, albeit crazy, idea was to scout talent from the Soviet Union. The only problem: how to lure players out from behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, with the hefty consequences of defecting to the United States looming over their heads.

The Red Wings drafted promising Soviet stars Sergei Federov and Vladimir Konstaninov in 1989. Through secret messages passed along in a manner similar to a John le Carré novel, the two were convinced to defect and join the Red Wings at great personal and political risk. Later, they were joined by another draft pick, Slava Koslov, and two additional Russians who joined from other NHL teams, Slava Fetisov and Igor Larionov. After learning that it was a common practice in the Soviet Union to combine forward and defensive lines as five-man units, Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman decided to do the same. Lo and behold: the Russian Five skated onto the ice together and into legend.

So Much More Than Just Sports

The Russian Five feels like multiple films rolled into one: when it starts, it resembles a Cold War spy thriller with its tall tales of smuggling messages and bribing doctors; then, it turns into your standard inspirational sports story as we watch the Russian Five overcome negative stereotypes, cultural differences and the long history of Red Wings failure to bring the Motor City its first Stanley Cup in 42 years; then, from the highest of highs, it veers sharply into the lowest of lows, with the tragic limousine crash that prematurely ended the career of Konstantinov. All of this speeds by in under two hours – less than the length of your average hockey game!

It’s easy to get caught up in the intense emotional rollercoaster of The Russian Five, which features present-day interviews with almost every major character in the story – including celebrity fan Jeff Daniels, who was present at that long-awaited Stanley Cup victory – as well as archival footage and animated sequences. The film is masterfully directed and edited without feeling overly manipulative. Each member of the Russian Five is his own colorful, complicated character in the story, and each one elicits his own form of empathy from the audience.

Of course, the game footage stands out for showing us exactly how and why the Russian Five were able to change the way the sport of hockey was played in this hemisphere – not to mention, allowing us to live vicariously through those glorious championships. But The Russian Five stands out because it is also about so much more than what these men did on the ice. It’s about what they did to open doors and create opportunities for future stars like Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. It’s about how immigrants from other countries can struggle to fit in even when they’re greeted with fast cars and bags of money. And, it’s about how they collectively lifted the spirits of the entire city of Detroit.

The Russian Five: Conclusion

At its heart, The Russian Five is a sports story, but you don’t have to be a hockey fan to appreciate its impact. It’s also an immigrant story, a survival story and a success story – and it’s impossible to not become wholly invested in all of them by the end of this exceptional film.

What do you think? Does The Russian Five sound like a nice feature to pair with the present-day NHL playoffs? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Russian Five is currently in theaters in the U.S. You can find more international release dates here.