Cultural depictions of Rasputin

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Since his death, there have been a variety of books, cartoons, films, songs, and even musicals about Grigori Rasputin.

Contents

[edit] Films

  • The 1980 Australian film Harlequin rehashes Rasputin's story in a contemporary setting; Robert Powell played the Rasputin character, a mysterious faith healer called Gregory Wolfe. The characters corresponding to Nicholas II and Alexandra Fyodorovna were called Nick and Sandra Rast ('Rast' being 'Tsar' backwards). [2]
  • Christopher Lloyd voiced Rasputin, while Jim Cummings performed his singing voice, in the 1997 animated film Anastasia, in which the sorcerer was the primary antagonist. In this role, Rasputin had brought himself to life while dying in the Neva River in order to complete the Russian Revolution by killing the last of the royal family. He is accompanied by a comical albino bat of unidentified species called Bartok. [4]
  • Rasputin has also been played by Gert Frobe in J'ai tué Raspoutine (I Killed Rasputin) (1967), featuring Prince Felix Yussupov as himself. [5]
  • Rasputin, played by Karel Roden, is the villain of the 2004 film Hellboy. He appears at the beginning of the movie during World War II, and is resurrected sixty years later as the main antagonist. His film appearance differed greatly from the real Rasputin; in the film, he was bald and had a short goatee. His history up to 1916 - at least what was mentioned - was more or less accurate, particularly regarding the manner in which he was killed the first time.

[edit] Music

  • Rasputin is the name and the subject of an opera by the distinguished Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara who wrote both the libretto and the music. Rautavaara presents Rasputin as at once "revolting" and "magnetic," a "daringly strange but compelling creation," as the critic Robert Levine has observed.
  • "Let Rasputin Do It" is a song on the Swedish rock band Fireside's 1998 album "Uomini d'Onore".
  • "Rasputin" was also a hit song by the disco music band Boney M. The song loosely describes Rasputin and some of the events of his life, emphasizing and exaggerating his sexual liaisons.
  • Rasputin and The Mad Monks were a garage band from Lawrence, Massachusetts. In late 1967 they cut a 4-song demo, including a cover of The Electric Prunes hit "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" which (2+ decades later) appeared on the compilation Beyond the Calico Wall. They are sometimes confused with Rasputin and the Monks, a prep-school garage band from New Hampshire who released a one-sided covers LP called "Sun of My Soul" (Trans Radio 200836) in 1965 or 1966.
  • There was another band called Rasputin And The Mad Monks, this one, formed near Cornell University circa 1966-1967, featured future Magic Tramps drummer Sesu Coleman. The group moved to Boston in 1967 and changed their name to "The Looking Glass".
  • Rasputina is an alternative rock cello band from Brooklyn, New York. The band was named for founder Melora Creager's obsession with Rasputin at the time.
  • Rasputin is the subject of a song by Therion, "The Khlysti Evangelist."
  • Rasputin is also the name of a song by Johnny Hollow and the lyrics reflect on his life
  • The Austin Lounge Lizards depicted Rasputin's encounters with the American medical system in their song "Rasputin's HMO".
  • The Finnish folk metal band Turisas used to do a live cover of Boney M's song Rasputin. In 2007 they even recorded a studio version and released a single called Rasputin

[edit] Computer and video games

  • Grigori Rasputin plays a major role in the game Shadow Hearts: Covenant. In the game, he is a genuine mystic with dark powers, and he is head of a secret group which is plotting the overthrow of the Czar.
  • Rasputin is a playable character in Alpha Denshi's 1992 coin operated 2-D fighter arcade game World Heroes as well as its sequels. The character bears his likeness and uses a combination of bizarre and magical attacks against opponents. The arcade games had high distribution in terms of available machines, but were poorly received by gaming critics. [7]
  • The main character in the PS2/Xbox game Psychonauts is called Razputin (better known as 'Raz'). Due to his psychic abilities, he is presumably named after Rasputin. The backstory of the character Raz includes a fear of drowning (like Rasputin's siblings) and a life in the circus (like his daughter Maria).
  • In the game Half-Life 2, a crazed Russian priest named Grigori aids the player through a zombie-infested town.
  • In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, the character Yuri was most likely inspired by Rasputin; he is a mysterious man with special powers who has a hold on the Russian leader.
  • In the game Resident Evil 4 the village chief bears a striking resemblance to Rasputin. Also, as Rasputin cared for the peasantry, Chief Mendez is the only possessor of a queen Plagas that shows any care for the ganados as revealed by a note encountered shortly before the boss battle with him.

[edit] Television

  • In 2001 on the daytime drama Passions, the witch Tabitha Lenox has a flashback to 1916 Imperial Russia where Rasputin is established as her love interest. Tabitha gives Rasputin advice of how to bring down the imperial family, and also gives him the idea to spare one certain member to which he agrees.
  • Rasputin was referred to in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row, implying that Rasputin was a demon with mind-controlling powers which resided on his eyes. A 5th-season episode of the show also has a scene where Buffy debates with a history professor over whether Rasputin had genuinely been killed. A 5th-season episode of Angel featured a vampire named Nostroyev who claimed to have been Rasputin's lover.
  • Rasputin appears in an Animaniacs short (voiced by John Glover), suffering from a toothache and treated by the palace dentists, the Warner Brothers and Dot. In one memorable and hilarious scene he is given anaesthesia--in the form of a mallet to the head wielded by a young girl. Dot comments on the obscurity of the joke and tells kids to ask their parents what it means. Rasputin loses his hypnotic talents when all his teeth get yanked out and he cannot properly enunciate.
  • In the Red Dwarf episode 'Meltdown', Rasputin is one of the rogue wax droids. The Abraham Lincoln wax droid mistakenly refers to him as "Rice-puddin'".
  • In the Seinfeld episode "The Suicide", Jerry asks Elaine, "If you named a kid Rasputin do you think that would have a negative effect on his life?" Later on in the episode two friends of George name their son Rasputin.
  • In the Smallville Episode "Run", Lex purchases a manuscript that was said to be the only thing that was hanging in Rasputin's chamber while he was studying at the Grigori monastery. He believed it would lead him to unimaginable power. Legend has it that Rasputin would stare at it for days at a time hoping to penetrate it's secrets. The border designs of the manuscript say, in kryptonian, "look deeper", and when Clark uses his X-Ray vision he sees that there is a map which leads to one of the three stones of power.
  • In an episode of M*A*S*H, Trapper mentions to Radar that "Rasputin" (Hawkeye) "swallowed a whole drug store," and didn't fall asleep (as Trapper was trying to sedate Hawkeye).

[edit] Comics

  • Rasputin is the main villain in the comic book series Hellboy, appearing often as a spirit that takes human form. In the 2004 film adaptation, he is seen working with the Nazis and demonstrates great occult abilities linked with the underworld. He is depicted as being in a sense immortal, as every time he dies, he resurrects with a part of his god within his body. The thematics of this are said to have originated upon stories of his numerous and equivocal near-death experiences as a child preaching the word of God. His power stems from a connection to the Baba Yaga who he met in his youth, as well as his devotion to Ogdru Jahad.
  • A recent X-Men miniseries revealed the superhero Colossus to be a descendant.
  • A Dilbert Comic strip, published August 13th, 2000, features a Rasputin as a "Consultant", as a stand alone joke. The character is likely heavily inspired by the real life Rasputin, including similar features and mystical powers. In the end of the comic, he was apparently killed by Wally due to the latter's "anti-charisma".

In DC Comics' Firestorm, Mikhail Arkadin meets a psychic named Rasputin. He asks if the man is named after "the mad monk of legend"; the man responds "Perhaps. Or perhaps I am the mad monk of legend."

[edit] Manga and Anime

  • In the anime series Master of Mosquiton, Rasputin is the main villain. Here, he is an immortal alien who has been on Earth since the dawn of humanity, and the Rasputin name is just the latest of many false identities he has created for himself.
  • Rasputin appears in the manga Koutetsu Tenshi Kurumi (Steel Angel Kurumi), in which he is one of three mystics who help set up the barrier around the Steel Fight. The other two mystics are Aleister Crowley and Kamihito Kagura.
  • In the anime series Blood+, Rasputin was the second of Diva's Chevaliers. A flashback episode to 1920s Russia places the main character, Saya with her Chevalier Haji travelling towards Ekaterinberg. While on the way there, they stay in a small village with a little girl, Sonya. It turns out that Sonya is actually Rasputin, and after a fight, Saya kills him before going into her 30 year hibernation.

[edit] Other Media

  • Skaters Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin performed an ice dance program titled Rasputin in 1991. Choreographed to tell the story of the Romanoffs, Bukin as Rasputin "died" four times at the beginning of the program. Rasputin is considered one of the most over-the-top routines ever seen in the melodramatic world of ice dancing, and led to an IOC rule that skaters must not "die" as a part of their routine. [8]
  • Rasputin was portrayed on stage in the play Rivers of Blood [9], written by the American poet and playwright Jay Jeff Jones. This was presented in a workshop production in New York City in 1982 and received a full production at The Eaton in London in 1983. It was directed by the Irish novelist and poet Dermot Healey and Rasputin was played by Gabriel Connaughton.
  • Rasputin and The Mad Monk appear as playable collectable figures in the Horrorclix game produced by Wizkids Games.