Russia was a lawless place following the fall of communism. Gangsters carved up what remained of the economy; and westerners flooded in, also looking for a quick buck, both exploiting the lack of order, but also threatened by it. The owners of an American ice hockey team decided to opportunistically buy a Russian one, and sent over a young huckster to market it; he had the time of his life, doing all sorts of things he could never have got away with in America. But when the money started to flow, the mafia wanted it. 'Red Penguins' tells the story, with interviews with most of the participants. It's entertaining, though also a disturbing tale. Fundamentally, the documentary is centred on its personalities: it gives us a flavour of the times, more than it does a detailed explanation. It's conclusion, showing us pictures of a drunken Boris Yeltsin, makes the point figuratively rather than logically. Today there is order in Russia once more, albeit not in the happiest of ways. Some of those who stole and got their money out are now regarded as perfectly acceptable members of the global elite. That's capitalism, folks!

I spent those same years in PR China as a young rep for a US Engineering firm, so this elicits a bit a sense of sympathetic nostalgia for the expat adventure. I have stories, but the difference is that I'm not Steve Warshaw. While the venture eventually failed, clearly Steve left a mark on the country, his creative boundary pushing facilitated by lack of rules in the new Russia. The apparent latitude that he was allowed (took?) by the Baldwin / the home office was amazing and amusing. Where were the corporate lawyers? Seems like one of those unique intersections of time and place that we will not see again and anyone who enjoys stories that revolve around cultural clashes, with a bonus dash of intrigue, hockey fan or not, will not go wrong by giving this a watch.

Well, you know the saying: sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear comes out to skate and hand out Penguins beer.

This is wildly entertaining, sometimes as funny as any great comedy of errors and outrageousness, and yet all the same it's quite a time as an American to watch this - frankly, my dears, I'm actually pretty happy to be a US citizen after watching how completely out of control and dangerous Russia was in the 90s (hell, still now). At one point the filming of an interview is interrupted because an... Unidentified person shows up behind director Polsky(!)

But what one comes away with the most is just how absurd Capitalism in all its circus elements can make something like the Red Army hockey team - and on a much darker level what the Russian Mafia did to everything with just how scary (yet in its own way still absurd) it could get - and that the first row seats to the circus one gets when born as an American (to paraphrase George Carlin) can be so surreal when put in front of Russian audiences. And at the midpoint I wondered "hmm, why there weren't any former players from the team interviewed for the documentary"... Until I realized, if they were still alive, some of them might be worried still about being identified!

In all seriousness, The focus on the management on American and Russian sides, and some other key figures in the know, seems like a tight one and tethered to the idea of the corruptive influences of money on people with little idea of a functioning democracy (including that one "Businessman" who only served 10 months in prison for some shady things, but hey, only 10 months means he wasn't guilty!) If anything it's a little short at 79 minutes.