Watch Moscow on the Hudson For Free

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Written, Produced & Directed by The Late/Great Paul Mazursky, 'Moscow on the Hudson' is a strange & wonderful, where our beloved Robin Williams soars in the title role. This performance only makes his loss all the more worse. What an actor & what a performance! 'Moscow on the Hudson' Synopsis: When a Russian musician defects in Bloomingdale's department store in New York, he finds adjusting to American life more difficult than he imagined.'Moscow on the Hudson' is about a man seeking freedom. We see the protagonist Vladimir Ivanov (Williams, of course) struggle initially in Moscow & later take the leap of faith in the US, to only realize that freedom is the best thing that can happen to anyone. His journey is real, as its sad & happy, real & affecting, as it progresses. And Williams owns the part. He speaks Russian as if it was his first language since birth & portrays a man torn between family & freedom. Williams is extraordinary & this is a performance, that definitely deserves to be watched again. A special mention for the delightful María Conchita Alonso, who enacts Williams' lady-love to perfection.Mazursky's Writing is excellent & his Direction, even better. 'Moscow on the Hudson' is a winner in almost every way. Strongly Recommended!

This is one of Robin Williams's very early movies just a couple of years after the TV series 'Mork and Mindy' and right before such successes as 'Good Morning Vietnam' and what followed. Of course now we know what a big star he became, and also his unfortunate death last year.Robin Williams is Russian musician Vladimir Ivanoff and most of the first part of the movie depicts how hard it was in Moscow in the early 1980s. When a performance troupe is in New York he takes the bold step of running off at a department store, chased by Russian officials, but he manages to secure refuge.The rest of the movie has him working hard to make his new home there, thus 'Moscow on the Hudson.' He first takes a job busing tables in a restaurant, just carrying dirty dishes back to the dishwasher. Eventually he takes jobs like clerk at a fast food counter, running a street hot dog cart, a limo driver ... until he is able to get a new saxophone and play good music gigs.The other running story is his attraction to pretty (actually Hispanic) Maria Conchita Alonso as Italian Lucia Lombardo, also making her way into this new land. It is on again, off again because she is not sure she wants to commit to a marriage relationship but in the end it seems they will.Good movie and Williams' Russian seems fairly authentic. I saw it on the 'Movies!' channel, some of the scene with the two of them in the bathtub is blurred and some words are bleeped out.

I first saw this film when the Iron Curtain was still firmly in place and of course it was intriguing and funny. Seeing it again, I found it quite prescient if less intriguing and funny. Robin Williams plays a Muscovite who visits the Big Apple as part of a cultural troupe. On a visit to Bloomingdales, he suddenly decides to defect (a very spin is made on this term!). The rest of the film deals with his attempts to settle in the US.Obviously given the great political changes in the USSR and Eastern Europe since the film was released, it has aged noticeably. However, it is not entirely without merit. The big plus is obviously Robin Williams. He was and is a great actor and seems to have put in great effort on his Russian and spoken English accents. Notice the way he says "Mister". The hot, hot, hot Maria Conchita Gonzalez (Miss Venezuela 1971) plays an Italian immigrant and the love interest. The overall bent of the film is liberal - African-American families are especially realistically and positively portrayed. The central lesson of the film is that the transition from a Communist to a Capitalist mentality is not easy and the adjustment can bring great joy and sorrow. That is a very valid lesson in the largest context of the later collapse of the USSR and the painful transition ex-Soviet states are still going through.

Robin Williams is excellent as a Russian circus performer in New York City with his troupe for the first time, deciding to defect and become a U.S. citizen. After an appropriately dark, though somewhat heavy-handed opening, this comedy-drama from director Paul Mazursky suddenly finds its niche and seldom wavers. It may appear from the early parts of the picture that Williams is giving yet another of his overly-colorful, cartoonish performances, but he too gets into the groove of this project and fleshes out this charming, confounding, complicated man. Maria Conchita Alonso is wonderful as the working girl who falls for Williams (they have terrific chemistry, and Alonso has never been better). A fuzzy, friendly, thoughtful film, a bit too long but occasionally sublime. *** from ****