without the
express written permission from the
No Ordinary Joe webmistresses prior to posting.
"I think Danilov was fascinating because of his contradictions. I felt that he
started from a naive and pure place that was based on the belief of the utopian
idea of the Communism, but then came to understand that at the end, Communism
under Stalin, or Stalinism, was just as bad as the evil he was fighting. I liked
that revelation and the human conflict. He was very difficult and compelling and
a wonderful character to portray."
"Danilov believed deeply, lived for and gave everything to the party.
I felt part of his journey was learning about his manipulations, which
he did for the right reasons, in his mind, to boost the morale of the
troops. But it gets out of hand. Stalin leans on Khrushchev, who leans on
Danilov, who is puppeteering Vassili into a fabricated hero. The combination
of that and the demons that come up force Danilov to confront all of
what he does to those he loves, really."
