Even though he is best known for The Lord of the Rings, Mortensen has received three Academy Award nominations for other movies that he has starred in. His most recent nomination was for his depiction of Tony Lip in 2018’s Green Book, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Mortensen has also received extensive recognition for playing The Man in 2009’s The Road, a post-apocalyptic story adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name.
Viggo Mortensen’s Eastern Promises Is Applauded For Its Realism
The Movie Gets Many Russian Mafia Details Right
The accuracy of Mortensen’s 2007 movie Eastern Promises receives a glowing review for its accuracy.As one of Viggo Mortensen’s best movies,his performance asNikolai Luzhin earned him his first Academy Award nomination. Nikolai is involved with the Russian mafia, which is threatened by evidence that a midwife named Anna (Naomi Watts) has, leading to the mafia taking extreme measures to protect themselves and their darkest secrets from being used against them.
Eastern Promises ‘ cast also includes Vincent Cassel.
In an Insider video, former CIA agent and Russian mafia investigator Joe Serio highlights the accuracy of Mortensen’s performance as Nikolai and his physical depiction. He first explains why the London setting is appropriate for the story and why it makes sense for Nikolai to have his coronation ceremony in a restaurant. Serio also breaks down the symbolic significance behind Nikolai’s tattoos and their importance in the Russian mafia hierarchy. While Serio is mostly impressed by Eastern Promises, he does take issue with a scene that takes place in a bathhouse. Check out his comments below:
You see the gangsters, the mafia walking into a restaurant in London. So when you talk about the Russian mafia, and you talk about the expansion, these guys, number one, are all over the world. One of their main hubs is London. They bought up tons and tons of real estate in order to launder their funds from Russia. They frequently, both in the Soviet era and in the Russian era, they used restaurants as meeting places. So you see them walking into a restaurant in London, pretty normal, pretty typical,
They did a really good job with this scene. The thing about the Russian underworld is they have such extensive tattooing, the first comment that the boss makes is “I can see from your look that you did time in Siberia.” The tattoos will tell you where you stand in the hierarchy, they’ll tell you what crimes you committed, how many sentences that you served in the prisons.
The other thing about this clip is Nikolai is in a coronation ceremony. That’s what’s happening here. He’s being made a thief, a thief with a capital T. They call it the Vor V Zakone; that’s the “thief-in-law.” Those are the big bosses, the chiefs of the mafia world.
This whole section about how “I did a couple of years in solitary confinement, I was in prison…” The thing about the Vor, the thieves, is that traditionally, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, their respect and their elite status came from how long they did in prison. So one of the things I was involved in, was getting inside Russian prisons and shooting documenatires. One prison I went into, we went to see one of these thieves. The warden said to me, “Look, I’m not going to lie to you. This guy we’re about to meet, he controls this prison. He’s the one that keeps the peace. I have to work with him.”
In this scene they’re talking about stars and Nikolai is about to get his tattoos as an underworld thief. One, you already see the cross on Nikolai’s chest. That’s one that’s used a lot by bosses, but the stars is the thing that is the most well-known, and he says in the scene, “You have an empty space on your shoulders, that’s where the stars are going to go, and the stars on your knees say, I will not genuflect, I will not kneel before any authority. I’m a boss.”
I’m not a huge fan of this scene. Bathhouses were generally places of safety where guys could gather, and generally speaking, they were off limits to things like this. That knife itself, in Russia, you use whatever weapon you use. So at some point in the Soviet Union, it was said that the most commonly used weapon in a murder was an axe. Because if you think about Russia prior to the Soviet Union, it’s a very agricultural country, so this weapon isn’t necessarily like a signature of the Russian mafia. It was what this guy had handy.
First of all, Viggo Mortensen is professional as an actor. He did a great job here learning the language. The scene in London, the coronation, the tattoos and the descriptions of the tattoos, nine out of ten for this scene.
Our Take On Joe Serio’s Comments
Eastern Promises Had A Strong Creative Team Behind It
Serio’s comments further cement that Eastern Promises is an underrated gangster movie. Mortensen’s immersive performance is behind much of what makes Eastern Promises work, as is David Cronenberg’s detail-oriented direction and a strong script written by Steven Knight. The entire creative team came together to ensure that Eastern Promises was a gripping and largely accurate portrayal of the Russian mafia. Mortensen will always be best known for The Lord of the Rings, but he is equally impressive in Eastern Promises.
