History Film / NicholasAndAlexandra

*** {{Pride}}: Nicolas is convinced of his status as a divinely appointed ruler, that his people love and respect him too much to ever revolt and refuses to end the war with Japan for fear of appearing weak and being the first ruler ever to have Russia lose a war.

*** HenpeckedHusband: He's married to a demanding, pampered princess with zero interest in the country, and ends up more interested in her than in governing Russia.
*** FishOutOfTemporalWater: He was simply a man unfit for the tumult and revolutions of the early 20th century. When the "winds of change" were blowing his way, he seems eager to stop them. In fact, with his family values and gentle, middle-class demeanor, it seems like he would have been much better as a figurehead head of state like many contemporary monarchs than as an old-school absolute monarch.

** Lenin and his wife Krupskaya, as they were in real life. While Lenin acts aloof towards others, including his fellow Bolsheviks, he shows a more sympathetic side towards his wife, showing concern for her upon noticing how exhausted she was.

** Alexandra plays this completely straight, being a cold-hearted bitch who thinks only of her own needs.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Nicholas lives in his father's shadow. TruthInTelevision, as Alexander III had no confidence in his heir and never bothered to teach him how to be a proper ruler and assumed he'd live long enough for it not to matter, shocking everyone when he died at the age of 49.

--> '''Grand Duke Nicholas''': Well Nicky, let me put it this way. ''(Presents a bullet)'' This is a bullet, made in Saint Petersburg. I send it off to war. How does it get there? On a single spur of railroad track four thousand miles long. And in the middle, no track at all. God help us, it spends three days packed on sleds. This works the same way for every pair of boots, first aid kit, or pound of tea we send. Get out now, Nicky. While there is time.

--> '''Tsar Nicholas II''': All my life. My whole life I've done what you want. I gave mother up. You hated her, so we don't see her anymore. I gave my friends up. Do you know I haven't a single friend ? I've got my family. Four girls, one sick boy...and you. I ask myself, before I eat, sleep, or change my clothes, is this what Sunny wants ? And it never is. There's always more! Sweet JESUS how much do you want of me?

** The execution of the Romanovs took several minutes in real life (some reports say up to 20), due to several of the gunmen being drunk and the room quickly filling up with gunsmoke, making it hard to aim. The girls had also sewn their jewelry into their dresses which acted as makeshift bulletproof vests. One of them may have been alive for as long as it took them to transport the bodies to the truck. They also read off a death warrant before opening fire, whereas in the film they just start shooting without a word. And the two chairs were not in the room when the family entered, either; Alexandra asked for some and Yurovsky brought them in.

** The execution of the Romanovs took several minutes in real life (some reports say up to 20), due to several of the gunmen being drunk and the room quickly filling up with gunsmoke, making it hard to aim. They also read off a death warrant before opening fire, whereas in the film they just start shooting without a word. And the two chairs were not in the room when the family entered, either; Alexandra asked for some and Yurovsky brought them in.

** Rasputin was introduced to the titular couple by a pair of princesses nicknamed "The Crow Sisters", not by Grand Duke Nicholas. The build-up to his introduction--a previous charlatan named "Doctor" Phillipe, whose "help", Alexandra believed, had allowed her to give birth to Alexei, had died, but not before predicting that another would take his place--is also absent.

** When Nicholas is begging for Nagorny's life, he says "No man should have that that power." The commander coldly tells him "You had it." Nicholas is forced to admit that he did, and that he let it destroy him.

** Nicholas is the royal variant: he's too milquetoast to be considered a [[TheCaligula Caligula]], but he makes a series of inept and tone-deaf decisions that alienate even his own family and lead to the collapse of his dynasty.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Nicholas lives in his father's shadow. TruthInTelevision, as Alexander III had no confidence in his heir and never bothered to teach him how to be a proper ruler.

*** FishOutOfTemporalWater: He was simply a man unfit for the tumult and revolutions of the early 20th century. When the "winds of change" were blowing his way, he seems eager to stop them. In fact, with his family values and gentle, middle-class demeanor it seems like he would have been much better as a figurehead head of state like many contemporary monarchs than as an old-school absolute monarch.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade[=/=]HistoricalVillainUpgrade[=/=]HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The movie plays around with its depictions of historical figures.
** Nicholas receives all of these at once, as the movie plays up both his incompetence and the [[PetTheDog love he had for his family]]. His accomplishments, while not being able to stop the revolution did lead to some improvements in Russian lives, are not touched upon. Nor, on the other hand, are his blatant racism[[note]]such as frequently referring to the Japanese as "monkeys," even in official correspondence[[/note]] and anti-Semitism[[note]]Not only did Nicholas condone, if not actively encourage several pogroms through his reign, along with his meddling in the Bellis blood libel case, he was convinced that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were genuine and urged his advisers to read it[[/note]] so much as mentioned.

** Dowager Empress Maria is shown to be a fan of autocracy, to an extent. In real life, she understood that the time of absolute monarchy was over and supported reform, but couldn't force Nicholas to go through with it because Alexandra controlled his ears. It got to the point where she and a circle of supporters hatched a plot to ''depose'' Nicholas and place a more liberal-minded (or at least more pragmatic) family member on the throne, but it never went anywhere.

''Nicholas and Alexandra'' is a 1971 EpicMovie directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. [[TheFilmOfTheBook Based on the nonfiction book]] by Robert K. Massie, it is a {{Biopic}} of the last Russian tsar, UsefulNotes/NicholasII (Creator/MichaelJayston), and his wife Alexandra (Janet Suzman), dramatizing their lives from 1904 to 1918, as their world collapses around them, they are overthrown and are eventually murdered by the Bolsheviks. The film shows the personal side of Nicholas and Alexandra, their loving and affectionate relationships with each other and their children, while also portraying their incompetence as rulers and their many mistakes that led to their destruction. Other scenes follow Kerensky (John [=McEnery=]), who struggles to establish a democratic government in Russia following the overthrow of the Romanovs, and Lenin (Michael Bryant), who rises from obscure rabble-rouser to the first ruler of the Soviet Union.

* ManOnFire: Seen when a leftist printing press goes up in flames.

* OnlySaneMan: Count Witte, who recognizes the need for reform and the recklessness of going to the first World War in 1914--see TheCassandra above. Kerensky is almost this, save for his fatal error of deciding to keep Russia in the unwinnable war. Alexei is this among the family, who sadly understands that they may not be alive in the near future.

** The other four servants who accompanied the Romanovs to Ekaterinburg, and--barring a kitchen boy named Leonid--died alongside them.

* AdaptedOut: The other four servants who accompanied the Romanovs to Ekaterinburg, and--barring a kitchen boy named Leonid--died alongside them.