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http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/video/6303196543/103-0427822-0397421
Sounds like I've succeeded in talking one of my kids into buying this for me for Christmas (yeah, I know...but I couldn't decide on anything I'd let them spend money on.)
"Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential video
During an unusual chapter in the career of director Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon), the filmmaker went to Russia because he found working in his native Japan to be too difficult. The result was this striking 1975 near-epic based on the turn-of-the-century autobiographical novels of a military explorer (Yuri Solomin) who met and befriended a Goldi man in Russia's unmapped forests. Kurosawa traces the evolution of a deep and abiding bond between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the sub-zero Siberian woods. There's no question that Dersu Uzala (the film is named for the Goldi character, played by Maxim Munzuk) has the muscular, imaginative look of a large-canvas Soviet Mosfilm from the 1970s. But in its energy and insight it is absolutely Kurosawa, from its implicit fascination with the meeting of opposite worlds to certain moments of tranquility and visual splendor. But nothing looks like Kurosawa more than a magnificent action sequence in which the co-heroes fight against time and exhaustion to stay alive in a wicked snowstorm. For fans of the late legend, this is a Kurosawa not to be missed. --Tom Keogh
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Spotlight Reviews (What's this?)
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Dersu Uzala :Kurosawa's Vision of Man in Nature, November 5, 2000
Reviewer: James D. Eret (see more about me) from San Diego
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.
Any Cantina folks seen it?
Sounds like I've succeeded in talking one of my kids into buying this for me for Christmas (yeah, I know...but I couldn't decide on anything I'd let them spend money on.)
"Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential video
During an unusual chapter in the career of director Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon), the filmmaker went to Russia because he found working in his native Japan to be too difficult. The result was this striking 1975 near-epic based on the turn-of-the-century autobiographical novels of a military explorer (Yuri Solomin) who met and befriended a Goldi man in Russia's unmapped forests. Kurosawa traces the evolution of a deep and abiding bond between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the sub-zero Siberian woods. There's no question that Dersu Uzala (the film is named for the Goldi character, played by Maxim Munzuk) has the muscular, imaginative look of a large-canvas Soviet Mosfilm from the 1970s. But in its energy and insight it is absolutely Kurosawa, from its implicit fascination with the meeting of opposite worlds to certain moments of tranquility and visual splendor. But nothing looks like Kurosawa more than a magnificent action sequence in which the co-heroes fight against time and exhaustion to stay alive in a wicked snowstorm. For fans of the late legend, this is a Kurosawa not to be missed. --Tom Keogh
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spotlight Reviews (What's this?)
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Dersu Uzala :Kurosawa's Vision of Man in Nature, November 5, 2000
Reviewer: James D. Eret (see more about me) from San Diego
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.
Any Cantina folks seen it?
