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Absolutely the worst movie.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This is one of my all time favourite pictures. It tells several stories. First about the case of "The butcher of Rostov" who was one of the worst serial killers in the history of the world. Second about the complete and utter hopelessness of the soviet system and bureaucracy, and politicians' convenient ignorance. Third about a man with full intentions to do his job the best way he can, against the system, and against his superiors who should be aiding him but are instead much more concerned about trivialising and keeping the whole thing quiet. The scenes where Burakov walks by the placard of Lenin shows the passage of time, but also that not much is changing. Again depicting the hopelessness of his situation. The film is dark, depressing, serious, and you really feel for Burakov. You end it with a sigh of relief, satisfied that the killer is finally dealt with although his story is equally depressing. He's seen as a loser by his wife, his peers, his superiors, and himself most likely. The only time he succeeds with anything is when he kills. If you have the slightest interest in criminal or soviet history this picture is for you.

Such terrible detective work resulted in so many dead who should not have died if the search for the serial killer was even competent, let alone good. The killer could have been caught so much earlier than the 11 years it finally took due to awful detective work that did not even consider two key tactics not used early on....those of surveillance and decoys. Once the killer's MO was discovered and his identity was suspected early on, he should have been placed under close surveillance 24/7, with special attention given to RR stations after those locations were determined to be the ones most likely to expose the suspect in the act of enticing his next victim. Also, using a decoy would have supplemented the first tactic and may have been even more immediately successful. Absolutely the worst police work I have ever seen in a modern film story, and totally embarrassing to anyone who has ever been on the the job, but may have been somewhat realistic considering that it happened in Russia in the 80s.That said, the movie was a pretty slow slog with little progress through the years, albeit massively hindered by many total political incompetents with their communist militaristic mindset and rigidity. Only by the persistence of the impassioned doctor(Rea)leading the case and the understanding and supportive colonel(Sutherland)in charge of it all was this case finally solved after too many years, all the while using archaic medical tech and police work that allowed so many killings to occur that never should have happened. Without those two dedicated men to find the killer eventually, it surely would never have been solved. A slowly involving story, but maddening for all the incompetence and posturing instead of good police work.

"Citizen X" from 1995, produced by HBO, is based on the true story of the Andrei Chikatilo investigation. Chikatilo (played by Jeffrey DeMunn) was a Russian serial killer who murdered over 50 people, many 17 years of age or under, until he was finally caught.Stephen Rea plays Viktor Burakov, a police detective put in charge of the case in 1983. Due to the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, he is unable to get anything that will help him - that being extra men, computers, and the ability to access records from the FBI. The last element was a point of pride, as the Communists did not want the U.S. to know how far behind they were.Frustrated, Burakov doggedly works, with some support from Colonel Mikhail Fetisov (Donald Sutherland), a man who acquiesces to the unreasonable demands of his superiors, but feels for Burakov. Because of the problems in SU, it takes Burakov 7 years of hard work to find the killer.One problem, a fascinating one, is that the killer's blood type is A, but the semen is type AB, which is why, after he was originally arrested early in the investigation, he had to be released. I scanned the story of this case, and the film seems to be fairly accurate.Besides Sutherland, Ray, and DeMunn, the cast includes Max von Sydow as a psychiatrist who writes a profile of the killer, Imelda Staunton as Viktor's wife, Josh Ackland, and John Wood - a very distinguished cast. It's no surprise that they all do a terrific job.Jeffrey DeMunn as Chikatilo gives a chilling performance of a meek, impotent man who can only find satisfaction in killing. But the one holds the film together is Stephen Rea with his beautiful performance as a quietly determined, frustrated, and empathic man who is determined to bring the killer to justice. He and Donald Sutherland build a wonderful camaraderie as the film goes on.Highly recommended, and though this could have been gorier, some of what they show is gory enough for me.

"Citizen X" is a movie that it will leave you speechless. It is a really good movie and it's worth seeing. It's also a true story relating of a Russian serial killer who kills his victims, he killed 52 people and 35 of them were children under the age of 17.This movie is really a good because it shows us how the USSR worked and how ware the relationships between the simple people and the people of the party. It also show us how the same things changed after the disruption of USSR.In this movie I liked very much the interpretation of Stephen Rea as Lt. Viktor Burakov and Donald Sutherland as Col. Mikhail Fetisov. I think Stephen Rea made his best interpretation in this movie. Max von Sydow as Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky made an also good interpretation. This movie it really worth seeing...