Rasputin on DVD, Biography, Alan Rickman, Greta Scacchi

In 1910s Russia, Czar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra find their son Alexei, sole heir to the Romanov dynasty, suffering from hemophilia and conventional medicine failing to help him. Alexandra looks into finding holistic treatment and finds a destitute monk who claims he had a vision from the Virgin Mary telling him that the Czar needed him. Though Nicholas and the royal doctor are both skeptical of Rasputin’s alleged healing abilities, young Alexei quickly bonds with the charlton prophet, so he remains in the Royal Court. But Rasputin’s constant boozing and womanizing angers the aristocracy and worsens the already unstable tensions between Nicholas and his subjects. With the seeds of revolution brewing, it becomes increasingly apparent that a bad end awaits for the entire Royal Family.

STARS: Alan Rickman, Greta Scacchi, Ian McKellen

135 min | Biography, Drama, History | 1996 | Color