'Red Army' a hot film about Cold War era

GABE POLSKY loves hockey. Got good at it. Played at Yale.

Wasn't good enough to play in the NHL, which is just as well.

"I can't watch it," he told the Daily News yesterday. "It's chippy and choppy, and they can barely complete three passes in a row."

Polsky likes his hockey fast and fluid, which is part of the reason he wrote and directed the critically acclaimed "Red Army" documentary that opens tomorrow at the Ritz Five in Society Hill.

Another reason is he's the son of Russian immigrants who, he said, came to America with "$500 and two suitcases."

"It's [my parents'] story. It's the Russian people's story," he said. "It's a deeply human story, about a geopolitical and cultural society."

It's also riveting, getting rave reviews at Cannes and everywhere else it's played.

It's Cold War on Ice meets Miracle on Ice. It features footage of Soviet players talking about the fear of practicing under the watchful eye of the KGB. About harsh training methods that caused them to urinate blood. About tyrannical coaches who cared only about winning.

"Andrei Khomutov's father was going to die," Slava Fetisov says in the film. "He came and said 'Can you let me see my father?' [The coach] said 'No, you have to get ready for the next game.' "

Fetisov went on to win back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Red Wings.

Polsky features others, including Vladislav Tretiak, the goalie who was pulled from the 1980 Olympic gold-medal game after the U.S. amateurs scored two first-period goals.

Tretiak, who went on to coach Polsky's hometown Chicago Blackhawks, was initially leery of being part of the film.

"There was a time where if you said the wrong thing, you could get in trouble," explained Polsky. "Sports [in the old Soviet Union] was used very deliberately to intimidate and spread ideology."