TOLSTOY

TOLSTOY

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© February 26, 2010

Reference: I write about Tolstoy in the missive TIGER WOODS, THE RAGE OF SOCIETY AND THE MONSTER IN US (February 24, 2010).

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As I said in this recent piece, myth surrounds our heroes, what I didn’t say, "And then they make films about these people."

I have not yet seen the new film on Tolstoy, “The Last Station,” but I did read a review of the film, which was positive (three and one half stars).

It stars two of my favorites: Christopher Plummer in the role of Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as Tolstoy's long-suffering wife, Sofya.

The review claims the movie centers on the last year of Tolstoy’s life, 1910, when he was 82. He did die at Astapovo Station, which was a train station.

As I point out in my piece, Tolstoy, great writer that he was, left only two great works, WAR AND PEACE and ANNA KARENINA.

The film is apparently based on the battle to get Tolstoy to sign over rights to his works. It was some battle fraught with jealousy, revenge, furtiveness, treachery, and always, Tolstoy's bad temper.

The battle for control of the rights was between Sofya and Tolstoy's agent and friend, Cherkov, whom Sofya hated, and others as well.

I don’t know if the film shows he ultimately signed the rights over to his youngest daughter, Alexandra, but it should. Royalties for these works in the last one hundred years (1910 – 2010) have run into the millions of dollars.

So much for accuracy.

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It appears that the film captures what I have tried to say in a few words in my piece, and that is that Tolstoy was contradictory, hypocritical and somewhat of a buffoon, a brilliant buffoon, to be sure, but nonetheless a buffoon.

(1) He was a moralist who led a deeply immoral life;

(2) He advocated and practiced celibacy when he lost an interest in sex;

(3) He became a vegetarian when he no longer had a taste for food; and

(4) He practiced his own kind of Christianity where Jesus was a brother and no more God than he was.

If the film captures this, it will provide a service to history.

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What prompted me to make these remarks was David Cavanaugh, a friend from my youth, and an original member of the Courthouse Tigers that I write about IN THE SHADOW OF THE COURTHOUSE (2003).

David reminded me in an email that we remember our teachers but we don’t remember who won the last Nobel Prize in Literature. David put things in perspective.


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This film will, too, if it depicts this great author as the flawed human being that he was. We have arrived at the point in our culture in which the extraordinary lives of ordinary people are seldom chronicled, but they hold us together and on course. Without them, we would perish.

This will not be the last film on Tolstoy, but if it is authentic, it should make us feel lucky that we’re not in the limelight.

Be always well,

Jim