It has been a long time since I last viewed this film, but it was a welcome revisit, and a chance to see a great performance by William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman, A History of Violence, The Proposition). After about a dozen of his films, I never tire of watching him act.

The cast also included Lee Marvin in a very good performance, and the ever-lovable Brian Dennehy. This was also the American debut of Joanna Pacula, who got a Golden Globe nomination for her outstanding performance. And, we also got to see her golden globes in a skintastic moment, right before she gets Hurt! This was her finest film in a career spanning 30 years.

Do not miss this fine police procedural with a surprise ending. The motive is brilliant.

GORKY PARK is one of those Hollywood films of the 1980s that explored Russian themes and backgrounds and took a look at Cold War relationships during the era; Schwarzenegger's RED HEAT is another of the popular examples. This one is based on the literate novel by Martin Cruz Smith and certainly has an air of authenticity to it, with Finland ably standing in for Moscow itself.

The plot involves William Hurt's impassive militiaman investigating a gruesome triple murder at the titular locale, one where the three victims had their faces skinned to hide their identities. His investigation takes him into the usual dangerous territory involving corruption, conspiracy, murder attempts and a femme fatale to boot. The film has a glacial feel to it at times, but James Horner's kettle drum score enlivens things immensely (just as it did in COMMANDO) and the excellent cast features good parts for Lee Marvin, Joanna Pacula and the scene-stealing Brian Dennehy.

Arkady Renko (William Hurt) is a Moscow police detective. They find three bodies in Gorky Park with their faces and fingers cut off. KGB arrives right away but nobody wants the case. The girl was wearing skates stolen from Irina Asanova (Joanna Pacula). As Arkady investigates, the case leads to the government with possible KGB connections. Jack Osborne (Lee Marvin) is an American with government influence and dating Irina. William Kirwill (Brian Dennehy) is an American looking for his brother James. Soon Osborne becomes a prime suspect.

This has a bit of quite a few different genre. It's got the CSI police investigation thriller. It has that cold moody murder like a Scandinavian murder mystery. It also has the communist KGB political intrigue. In the center of it all, William Hurt holds the movie together in a murky police/political thriller. It just has a great murder mystery mood.