[Editor's Note: The Last Station opens Fri., Feb. 26 at St. Pete's Muvico Baywalk, CineBistro in Hyde Park, Oldsmar's Woodlands 20 and Sarasota's Burns Court. Get movie showtimes here, and for reviews of more new releases check out the Daily Loaf Movie Review Index.]
The Last Station presents the fascinating last year in the life of Russian giant Leo Tolstoy, watered down by a cavalcade of coming-of-age story and biopic clichés. It’s too bad, because there is so much to explore in the great writer’s life story. Tolstoy wasn’t just the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina; the author was so popular in Russia at the end of his career that he inspired a religious and philosophical movement. (Sorry, L. Ron, you’re not all that original.) These Tolstoyans were essentially anarchists who mixed their beliefs with some of the teachings of Christ. They were vegans interested in spreading love and harmony, stuck to abstinence as the best policy and rejected organized religion. Still, it was Tolstoy’s ideas about pacifism and non-violent resistance that would have a lasting impact and directly inspire the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2010.