Plasma Productions

Review by Matthew Elton

copyright 2008 Matthew Elton

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One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is probably the worst movie I've ever seen.? The plot is almost nonexistent.? This movie does not follow the standard archplot design that has historically been the hallmark of sotrytelling, especially in Hollywood.? Rather, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich follows a dull antiplot design.? There is no rising action, no climax, no falling action, and no resolution.? The film merely documents one day in the life of a prisoner at a Soviet work camp - one boring, repetitive, monotonous, and very long day.

This is not a movie to watch for entertainment.? Yet despite the lack of plot, the message is powerful.? This movie is the opposite of entertainment - it is designed to make the audience suffer through the same mental torture that all Soviet prisoners were forced to suffer through - every minute of every day, for all three thousand six hundred and fifty three days of their sentences.? The film itself documents only one of these days - since every day in the life of a Soviet prisoner is the same, if you've seen one day, you've seen them all.

By the end of the movie, you're left wondering how you survived the monotony of the film.? Then you realize that what you've seen is only one day in the life of a Soviet prisoner.? The idea of living through three thosuand of these days is overwhelming, and thus the film has a cathartic effect on the viewer that deeply communicates the horrors of Marxism.

Despite the fact that it's probably the worst movie I've ever seen, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is important because it documents the forgotten holocaust.? An estimated six million people died in Soviet work camps.? Yet in most modern history textbooks, it's the Nazi concentration camps - where six million Jews died - that get all the attention.? One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich reminds us that there was another holocaust - six million others who froze to death in the icy graveyard of Siberia, suffering under the heavy yoke of communism.