Gorky Park is William Hurt's finest film role, bar none.It is 1983, it is Moscow, and Hurt is Arkady Renko, a skilled but low-rung detective for the local military police, known as the Militia.Renko is called one wintry night to the scene of a grisly triple murder, the bodies found hard by the public skating rink of Gorky Park. As soon as he arrives to the scene, so do the lethal agents of the Militia's rival agency, the KGB. Renko not only has a hard case to solve, he's got hard rivals watching as he tries to go about it. Strange.The film leaps from a delicately constructed whodunit into a major drama within minutes, as Renko happens across his first witness, the young Russian film assistant Irina. Searingly acted by the gifted Joanna Pacula, there is instant chemistry, confusion, and delightful tension between the male and female leads, and it starts the viewer off into a more modernized version of Casablanca, but with a winching plot that actually keeps us on edge. With two major exceptions, the wider cast of "Soviets" are British, and they are a group of supporting all-stars. Ian Bannen as the viperish prosecutor Iamskoy and Ian "Palpatine" McDiarmid in a heavy cameo as a creepy-cool facial reconstructionist deserve special mention. Lee Marvin and Brian Dennehy are Hurt's co-stars. Both play Americans. For the unwatched, it would spoil some of the fun to hint at whether either of their characters is the heavy, rather it suffices to say that Marvin's role is quintessential Marvin and Dennehy has never done a better Dennehy role than his turn in this film. You get just what those names promise from the Playbill. But William Hurt is the film's core, soul, and mainstay. He does it all, from fighting to quiet psychologies to loving on the stunning, vulnerable, feral Irina, with a deep, brooding, unaffected humanity and sense of the inexorable. Hurt is a wonderful actor and he truly is Shakespearean in stature here as "Arkady beset by Moscow."One quibble. The film's opening credit sequence and introductory shots were economized. With a larger investment and more thoughtful ideas for the main title sequence, perhaps some minor re-jiggering of imagery of the fallen snow as metaphor for the rest of the film, Gorky Park might today be talked about alongside a Breakfast at Tiffany's or a Lawrence of Arabia. The remainder of the film is about that great. Film students and aspiring auteurs should watch Gorky Park, again and again.

„Gorky Park " is a crime thriller set in Soviet Union . The main hero is Russian police officer who tries to solve a mystery involving three dead people , who were murdered in Moscow's Gorky Park . The film is set during the twilight years of the old Soviet Union, the brief interlude between the death of Leonid Brezhnev (an event referred to in the script) and the rise of the liberal, reforming Mikhail Gorbachev. The atmosphere of Soviet Union is a one full of cynicism and corruption. I won't spoil the movie by saying that Renko's ( main hero of the movie played by William Hurt ) investigation will lead him to people at the top of Soviet Establishment.The movie may have a Russian hero , but is far from being pro-Soviet. The Soviet system here is soulless and ruthless . It's a hell on Earth for decent people . The movie couldn't been made in Soviet Union , so Helsinki play the part of Moscow. Director Michael Apted and cinematographer Ralf Bode were still able to give us a cold, bleak atmosphere of the USRR."Gorky Park " is a example of 80's neo-noir movie . This genre is obviously inspired by Humprey Bogart movies. It includes several common features that must appear in this kind of movie :-a lonely hero who is outwardly unemotional , but inwardly feels everything very deeply.He acts like a cynical asshole , but he believes in justice . He will risk his life for the cause he believes in. -a femme fatale who is also main hero's love interest . A woman who isn't either good or bad . -a corrupted system -a powerful villain who is connected to the Establishment -bittersweet conclusionWilliam Hurt is a great choice for the main hero , because he knows how to play men who find it difficult to express their feelings . Everything you need to know is written on his face. He doesn't have to shout or gesticulate to show the audience the true depths of his soul. Equally great is Joanna Pacula who plays the main female character in the movie. She was nominated for Golden Globe for her performance. It isn't surprising , because she really makes the audience care for Irina – a woman trying desperately to get out of USRR. Too bad that after this something went wrong and she started to appear in rather bad movies ( with the exception of "Escape from Sobibor" ).The rest of the cast is also solid , especially Bryan Dennehy ( "Rambo : First blood" ) and Lee Marvin ( " Dirty dozen") . The screenplay from Dennis Potter is intelligent. The music made by James Horner is great , even if a little too loud and a rip-off "48 hours". The movie doesn't try to shock you withviolence or plot twists , but rather allows you to enjoy watching as all the puzzles start to make sense.This is one of the better thrillers of the 80's. If you're looking for neo-noir movie you should also watch "Body heat "(also with William Hurt) and "No mercy" (with Richard Gere and Kim Basinger). "Gorky Park " is a solid thriller that made me cry at the end of the movie . It holds up even better on re-watch . I give it 8/10.

I saw this film on a US army base in West Germany about a year after its release. I didn't have enough German to go to a commercial movie theatre and this was the only game in town. I knew nothing about it, hadn't even heard of the book let alone read it; I did know both William Hurt and Lee Marvin and, as I said, it was the only game in town. I thought it was dire. A few years later someone lent me the book which I enjoyed so much that I went on to read the subsequent Martin Cruz Smith novels featuring Arkady Renko. Now, some 26 years later the film has re-surfaced. I checked it out in case my first impression was wrong. It wasn't. This is STILL dire. It's a thriller without any thrills, a who-done-it entirely lacking suspense, set in a Moscow that's about as Russian as Upper Sandusky. The leading lady has no charisma, sensuality, or even bread-and-butter attractiveness that I was able to detect and there's more chemistry between a moth and an icicle than between her and leading man Hurt. For reasons best known to themselves the producers have seen fit to dispense with Renko's wife and the killer is known too us far too soon. All in all a joke.

This film has stood the test of time and repeat viewings for me. Have watched about 10 times over the past 20 years and each time I am totally engrossed. Excellent crime-mystery drama. The dialog in this movie is as good as any I know. Scenery and the settings make you feel like you are in Russia during winter: bleak and frigid. Performances by Hurt, Marvin, Dennehey, and Bannen are all solid if not outstanding. Some may be put off by English and Americans performers posing as Russians, but don't let the lack of dialect authenticity get in your way of enjoying this gem. For comparison I would rank it with LA Confidential within its genre.