View Larger Image |
Dersu Uzala Actors: Maksim Munzuk, Yuri Solomin Director: Akira Kurosawa Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Letterbox Format: Color, Widescreen Audience Rating: G (General Audience) Running Time: 140 minutes Studio: Image Entertainment Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2002-05-23 Buy from Amazon |
 "Stunningly beautiful and stunningly moving"Dersu Uzala is a deeply moving, occasionally humorous, and hauntingly beautiful Akira Kurosawa film about a most unlikely of friendships between an Russian Army captain and a native Siberian hunter who lives alone in the wilderness - Dersu Uzala. The film is shot almost entirely outside in the Siberian wilderness, featuring some of the most stunningly bleak landscapes I have ever seen captured on film, and is so brialliantly acted that it seems more like documentary about real people than actors reading a script. This Russian-language film is one of Kurosawa's lesser known gems and shows his directing at its best, when he was at the height of his mature talent. In its own way this film has a lot to say about the plight of native peoples and the high price of modernity. Not to be missed. "Something isn't right here.."The movie is a classic..one of Kurosawa's best films. Even better than some of his older works but something definately stinks here. How is this DvD actually worth [money]? I mean, make no mistake; this is a Kurosawa, but the quality sometimes looks worst than a bootlegged VHS. Kurosawa's older movies like Hidden Fortress and Seven Samurai look much better than this and those movies are 44 and 48 years old respectively, COST LESS and are black and white. Sadly this isn't the first Kurosawa movie I've seen been massacred by a poor DvD transfer. Remember Ran? That DvD was a utter disgrace. So was Madadayo and Sanjuro. I'm so sick of these companies seeking a quick profit so they take works of art and destroy them with half assed ports and then charge over inflated prices on top of all that. It makes me sick. And then there are movies like Kagemusha, Ikiru and Throne of Blood (some of the greatest movies ever made) that have yet to be released on DvD and that I find completely unacceptable. I'm sorry this is beginning sound like a rant but no way is this half assed transfer worth that much money. The movie gets 10 stars but the DvD gets NONE. "remarkable"Thoughtful film from Akira Kurosawa about a Russian military man mapping the forests and frozen wastes of Russia in the early 1900's.Along the way he finds an elderly man(Dersu Uzala)whom he enlists as his guide.This is a stunningly photographed and incredibly moving film that can teach us a lot about being more appreciative of the planet we inhabit.  "shame shame shame"Dersu is one of my favorite films of one of my favorite directors. What a shame it did not get an adaquate treatment on DVD. The pictorial quality is inferior awful and disgusting. If You love this film don't buy this product. "Kurosawa's most obscure and least Kurosawa-like film"Dersu Uzala is the name of an indigenous hunter living in the cold and wilds of Siberia. The main character is a russian officer assigned to head an expedition of soldiers and cartographers to survey some of the Siberia's unexplored areas. The first night they settle down and build a campfire Dersu happens upon them and they offer him some food. In broken russian the main character talks with Dersu and hearing how well he knows the terrain he asks Dersu if he'd tag along with them and serve as their guide. Dersu accepts for the company and for a handful of bullets which he'll receive later (as ammunition was scarce in the wilderness). The rest of the story plays out like a modern day version of "Deer Slayer" with Dersu playing the knowledgable and noble savage and the main character playing the slightly naive but capable civilized gentleman. Kurosawa's hand can be seen in the long still sequences that show the vastness and beauty of nature. Siberia is used as a surrogate for the majestic untamed wilderness and forests of Fennimore Cooper, ironically showing civilization moving eastwards instead of westwards. The story moves very slowly with intermittant voice over sequences by the main character describing what happens as if he were a narrator from a book, a very un-Kurosawa-like quality. Kurosawa doesn't usually use main-character voiceovers. He usually shows the action or uses wordless plainly readable editted sequences. Dersu Uzala is his most conventional film; a must-see for the avid Kurosawa buff but maybe a movie you can pass on by if you're looking for something more in the vein of a classic Kurosawa work. |
