The Rider Named Death

Exquisite, self-contained curio.

Shakhnazarov's film effortlessly captures the times and the author's conflicted yet unyielding attitude, yet it never draws any conclusions -- the film remains under glass. It's watchable, nevertheless.

The force of the film is not as profound as Shakhnazarov clearly intended, and The Rider Named Death is easier to respect than enjoy.

Mostly a straightforward story of revolutionary failure–and the slowly-growing acknowledgment that violence inevitably spreads, crossing every moral boundary you think you’ve set, and toppling, as it spreads, some kind of necessary structure in the soul.