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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 |
 "Technically miserable"Let's make it clear from start : the movie is a pure masterpiece and will top rank in anyone vidéo collection. The point here is the DVD transfer which is a catastrophy. I am not a techno nut & am very tollerant when there is some quality problems here & there. But this DVD has to be a case on what can go wrong : the sound is scratchy at best, the colors are mostly saturated or are totally faded, the picture goes constantly out of focus, ... Things where so bad I checked my hardware with another DVD ! For the price this is a rip-off.  "An out-of-the-way masterpiece"Kurosawa had to go all the way to Siberia to regenerate his career in films (after his lambasting with "Dodes-kaden," which prompted a suicide attempt). Yet he managed to make a film entirely congruent with his concerns. "Dersu Uzala" is about heroism - a subject familiar to any Kurosawa enthusiast. And the photography is particularly exquisite. This is so much more than an episode in the life of a misunderstood genius. "Dersu" almost exceeds most of Kurosawa's other work of the '60s. Hereafter he would be an 'international' filmmaker. "Kurosawa but no Samurai! An amazing and true story"This film shows another side of Kurosawa; the same sweeping, amazing cinematography, the same respect for history but this time a story not involving the Japanese or Samurai tradition. This is the story of a Russian surveyor who is helped in his arduous mapping of an area of Siberia by a Goldi tribesman. Yuri, the captain of the surveying team and Derzu, the native guide have almost a wordless exchange of information yet establish a rapport stronger than brothers. The end of the story is sweetly tragic, and some of the scenes just will blow you away (like a blizzard on the open prairie and how they survive it.) This is a beautiful film and one that can be watched again and again.  "Blush, Kino"Wonderful film, one of my top ten, but this is a terrible DVD. My videotape is MUCH better. Kino must have searched for the worst possible print to transfer; every flaw is preserved and magnified. A ridiculous, cheap, cynical, hack-job on a beautiful film. How did this happen, and why won't someone with a conscience do this film DVD justice? "Dersu Uzala :Kurosawa's Vision of Man in Nature"Dersu Uzala is one of my favorite films, a film to be cherished for its subtlties and how they eventually lead to larger truths. Very few films are made on the themes of compassion and subtle bravery. Yuri Solomin, the Russian captain who leads a small squad of soldiers into the Siberian wilds to survey the land, is one of the most memorable portraits of compassion ever put on film. His relationship to Dersu (Maksum Muzuk)is almost totally intuitive and wordless. The captain knows almost from the onset that this Goldi wilderness hunter is special and step by step the captain and his men learn gentle and harsh lessons from this marvelous woodsmen, how to survive in almost impossible weather conditions, how to act like a man, with dignity and compassion. This was one of Kurosawa's last films. It was a difficult time in his life when it was reported he attempted suicide and that George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola help him get this movie made, knowing that this lengendary director should not be neglected. The cinematography goes much farther than nature specials and some scenes, like the distant icy landscapes lit by firelight, create a beautiful, unforgettable vision of that wild place. I guess you could call this an action picture, but Kurosawa gives us more, dives deeper to show us the day to day wonders, the harsh existence, and sadness when one is taken out one's element and put in an alien one. Dersu Uzala is a brilliant, lasting vision of man humbled by nature but respecting nature, and then bringing it back in a poem of reflection. The understated ending, so subtle, almost mute, is one of the most moving I've ever watched. All viewers should cherish this film for so many strengths and be glad that we had such a master film maker as Kurosawa among us. He will be greatly missed by all. Highly recommended for all ages, a masterpiece that will test and reward the audience like the harshness of the Siberian landscapes it so boldly portrays. |
