Waste of time

Purely Joyful Movie!

People are voting emotionally.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is one of the best murder mysteries that I've ever seen. If you're drawn to the macabre in films, you must see this one. Its pacing feels very slow, reflecting the tragic nature of the true story. Still, inside that apparent slowness much action occurs. Never energetic action like chase scenes, but the actions taken to solve the case. The film seems to crawl, but you're not bored.The depiction of the 1980s Soviet system is interesting and there are a couple of scenes that deal with the emotional pain experienced by the main investigator (Rea) that are very moving.How this wonderful film has never gotten significant adulation is beyond me. I guess that is because it was a made-for-TV movie.

Andrei Chikatilo was a serial killer in the Soviet Union. Over the course of twelve years, he murdered 52 women and children in the Russian, Ukrainian and Uzbek SSRs. Chris Gerolmo's "Citizen X" focuses on a coroner's investigation into the murders and the government's refusal to report on the murders, since they didn't want to have to admit that there was crime in the USSR (supposedly, such things only existed in the west). Stephen Rea plays the overworked coroner, and Donald Sutherland plays the head of a provincial committee charged with law enforcement, but the movie really belongs to Jeffrey DeMunn as the murderer. He portrays Chikatilo as a disturbed, lonely individual who just happened to be a remorseless killer. One could almost feel sorry for him, were he not a monster.I recommend the movie. It's a safe bet that everyone in the Soviet Union breathed a sigh of relief after that fiend got arrested. The rest of the cast includes Max von Sydow, Joss Ackland, John Wood (Prof. Falken in "WarGames") and Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter movies).Another movie about Andrei Chikatilo is 2004's "Evilenko", starring Malcolm McDowell as a fictionalized version of him.

Wonderful cast. Bit of a flat story line, but was produced for TV so to be expected. Even so, this movie will keep you interested until the end. Good insight into crime fighting behind the iron curtain, and the final scene uncovers stark differences between Western and Soviet justice. How did this person get away with murdering 52 victims before being caught? One of the focal points of the movie reveals the growing bureaucratic incompetency of the crumbling Soviet regime. In spite of this, we see that people are people everywhere with the same passions and concerns. Life continued in the Soviet Union just as it did in the West. And although the world was changing for Russia at the time of these events, yet for ordinary people, life went on.

This is a clear, straightforward and well acted movie about a Soviet serial killer over 50 women and children in Rostov in the Soviet Union. Some killing is shown but it's not too graphically violent showing what needs to be shown for the story but not more.Stephen Rea and Donald Sutherland as the Soviet investigators put on mild Russian accents which adds authenticity. The production captures the bleakness and despair of a Soviet city of the time. Very interesting insights into the ideology and Soviet thinking and bureaucracy of the regime. Especially how these things interfered with catching the killer earlier. It's amazing how they actually had the killer and let him go. The almost primitive methods they had to use to catch killers is quite shocking.Well worth watching for the culture difference.