Dersu Uzala
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Movie Reviews of Dersu Uzala
Movie Review: A Different Kind Of Kurosawa Film: A Film About Friendship And Aging!
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, I would like to write that this film needs to be restored by CRITERION, it definitely needs a major makeover. Also, while I have this in my collection; I did not really appreciate this film when I first viewed it. I do now. This was the first film by director Akira Kurosawa after his attempted suicide. And although he was still in a state of depression when doing this film, the film succeeds; and when I viewed it again last night, after a several year period, I thought about Kurosawa, and how different this film was from his other films. And maybe this was due to his state of mind at the time. Moreover, I found the film to be excellent. The film is set in the forests of Siberia in the 19th-century. The film centers on the friendship of Captain Vladimir Arseniev (Yuri Solomin) and an inhabitant of the frozen Taiga, named Dersu Uzala (Maksim Munzuk).
Those who are used to Kurosawa's earlier films, such as RASHOMON, YOJIMBO, or SEVEN SAMURAI among others; do not compare this film to those ones, this is a distinctly different film. Furthermore, it is a great film worthy of any of his previous ones. This is a story about both friendship, and growing old. In the film, a Russian captain, Arseniev, begins a friendship with a man of the Taiga named Dersu Uzala. Dersu even rescues Arseniev when he is trapped in a frozen lake. For the Russian Captain, he is out of his elements, and relies on Dersu many times. However, Dersu knows his elements: Or does he? For Dersu, survival in the frozen wastes of Siberia is a way of life. Yet when Dersu kills a tiger, it's like a curse has been placed on him. His tribe believes that a ghost, Kanga, rules the Taiga, and therefore he will be punished. Dersu begins to have difficulty killing his prey, and even his eyesight worsens.
Finally, when Captain Arseniev sees the horror one night on Dersu's face, [who is expecting Kanga to send the Tiger to kill him], he offers Dersu to come to his hometown. During the Russian expedition in Siberia, these two men have developed a very strong friendship and affection for one another. As the viewer you cannot help but empathize with Dersu, knowing that he is the one who is no longer comfortable in his elements. Moreover, you begin to see that as an old man, Dersu no longer is safe in his once comfortable Taiga. Also, the friendship these two men share is very strong. This film is great, and for those who have viewed it once before, and maybe did not particularly care for the film, try watching it again. Maybe because I am getting older I am seeing things I did not when I was younger. This film is a truly great Kurosawa film. Plus the cinematography, beautiful scenes, and music are outstanding. One big caveat, however, is that the film needs to be restored. It deserves more treatment than it has been given at present. Highly recommended. [Stars: 4.5]
Movie Review: Old men.
Summary: 5 Stars
A movie about an old man made by an old man. And yes, it's enthralling, sometimes downright thrilling, despite the elegiac pace and its absolute refusal to be rushed. *Dersu Uzala*, which takes place at the turn of the previous century, is about the friendship between a somewhat inept Russian army captain and a bowlegged, grizzled little Mongolian trapper named Dersu. They meet one spooky night while the Captain and his platoon are camped out somewhere in east Siberia on a surveying expedition. Though the guys in the platoon are at first inclined to make fun of the eccentric Asian frontiersman, the Captain is fascinated by him, and is smart enough to ask Dersu to be their guide through the forbidding wilderness. What follows is pure photographic magic that's probably pointless to describe because, as they say, pictures say a thousand words. What can be said is that Kurosawa, despite his 70mm cameras, eschews any attempt to CRAM the total landscape in his shots, opting instead to present Siberia at eye-level, so to speak -- which takes the "omnipotent eye" away from the audience, putting us intimately with the adventurers on screen . . . i.e., we see what they see. This is the sort of trend-bucking that one expects from a genius like this director. Then there's the character of Dersu Uzala himself, wonderfully played by a fellow named Maksim Munzuk. Kurosawa and this actor created a WHOLE character here, a true hero -- warts, and all. You know you've witnessed artistic truth when, late in the movie, you realize how ridiculous Derzu appears in a blue sweater, sitting by the fire in the Captain's house. A warmly humane, touching, and ultimately heartbreaking movie. Good for kids, too, in my opinion, if they can sit through the subtitles -- it is, after all, rated G. [A note on the DVD: Several yahoo "reviewers" here have bemoaned the quality of Kino's DVD presentation. Frankly, I don't know what these digital cineasts expect -- *Matrix*-quality crispness and Dolby 5.1 audio? Give me a break. *Dersu Uzala* is, let's face it, an obscure art-house oddity, a joint venture between a then-down-on-his-luck Japanese filmmaker and Soviet MOSFILM studios, for Pete's sake. The point being, just be glad the movie is available and, like, shut up. As a matter of fact, there are several brief shots -- curiously enough, practically all 3-4 second compositional shots -- that are indeed scratchy, but the reality is that the rest of the movie looks excellent. And as for the bellyaching about the price . . . what, you're not willing to pay... for a masterpiece? So don't buy it. Or get a job, one.]Movie Review: One of the Greatest of Masterpieces
Summary: 5 Stars
As I still have VHS capabilities, this review does not concern itself with the technical problems with the Kino DVD. I thank those who have dealt with this issue, because Dersu deserves to be experienced in the finest print and on as large a screen as possible, because the film could be subtitled: THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE WRIT LARGE. For film buffs, of course, cinematography is one of these, and Dersu remains unsurpassed for its integration of narrative and landscape (one imagines that Herzog and Wenders must have reviewed this film endlessly). Kurosawa's cinematic technique here is close-up: simple, direct, intimate, yet one gets this deep feeling of comprehensiveness. In one of the grand sequences of the film, when Dersu says "The sun is a good man. The moon is a good man.", and Kurosawa gives us the corresponding visuals, the whole organic unity of life seems clearly presented to us, in a moment, at once palpable and ultimately mysterious, comprehensible yet inevitably esoteric, knowable for a day or a night, but secret in its origins and ends. From an intellectual perspective, the film examines the meeting of the two basic cultures of this world: modern, "scientific" eurocentric peoples, and ancestral, aboriginal or 'first peoples': those who seek to alter their environment and those who strive to live within the given. The environment, in this case, is stark and unforgiving: Siberia. Mostly, however, the film discusses a topic rarely (as strange as it seems) the subject (at least devoid of romantic or sexual overtones) of many films nowadays: friendship. Based on a true story, the film details the friendship which develops between two people from opposite orientations in virtually every sense. Neither can exist in the other's world, but for a brief, spectacular moment they are brought together to show us how we can live together, and why we should. Nowhere else have I seen perhaps the noblest of human endeavors treated with such dignity and grace. The results are sublime. In my opinion, Kurosawa's best (which is not merely very good), and a film I wish everyone could have the privilege of seeing.Movie Review: One of my favorite Kurosawa films...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of my favorite Kurosawa films, and one that is part of a very select phenomenon. Kurosawa couldn't find financing in Japan during this time period, so he turned to the USSR for financing of this film, one of only two films (the other being Dodeskaden) that Kurosawa made in the 1970's. The film is so quinessentially Russian, both in its language, themes, and character. You'd swear it was directed by a Russian, but Kurosawa is obviously not Russian. Only a few filmmakers (Kubrick for A Clockwork Orange, Tarkovsky for The Sacrifice, and most recently, Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima) have managed to submerge themselves in a foreign culture and make a film worthy of it. I originally saw this film in a pan and scan version, and it had absolutely no impact. Seeing it widescreen on DVD is so much better. It's a completely different film, and a great one at that. Another great thing about this film is the subtitles. Dersu Uzala, the main character, speaks broken Russian, and the subtitles are translated in broken English (even though you understand them). Dersu is not stupid, just not educated. Educated people can be quite stupid at times, so having a degree doesn't mean you're smart. Some have complained about the poor quality of the transfer. The film was shot in 70mm Sovcolor. Soviet film stock was notoriously inconsistent. Many films shot in the former Soviet Union had many problems with out of date film stock, or film stock that had already deteriorated, but due to bureacracy, a lot of times directors would shoot with the bad footage and later learn it was defective (Tarkovsky had this experience on the film Stalker, and it forced him to start over from scratch after shooting a large part of the film). The film itself is magnificent, with some incredible widescreen photography and wonderful vistas of Siberia (contrary to popular belief, some of Siberia is lush forest land, it's not all tundra and ice). It's one of my favorite Kurosawa films, and it's a good illustration of his later style (longer takes, slower pace, more meditative), which I like more than his earlier work.Movie Review: Taiga Tales
Summary: 5 Stars
DERSU UZALA (1975) stands proudly alone in the vast Akira Kurosawa canon of cinema. It is his only film in Russian, and it is filmed with his unique Asian perspective, giving the character of Dersu much more depth than a Soviet director would have managed. This film saved Kurosawa's career, and possibly his life. His attempted suicide after the critical failure of his feature, DODES' KA-DEN (1970), made him a pariah. He struggled for years before he finally went to Russia's Far East to film. Even considering the Oscar DERSU UZALA won, it took him several more years to finance and mount KAGEMUSHA (1980). Thank the cinema gods then he was able to go on and direct great films like RAN (1985), and DREAMS (1990).
Cinematographer, Asakazu Nakai, his long-time collaborator on films like STRAY DOG (1949), IKIRU (1952), THE SEVEN SAMURAI (1954), THRONE OF BLOOD (1957), and RED BEARD in (1965), accompanied him to Russia to work with Soviet cinematographers Fyodor Dobronravov and Yuri Gantman. The photography in DERSU UZALA gave it its authenticity, its grandeur and scope, filling the screen with the taiga and tundra, vast jungle-like forests, and frozen wastelands.
Maksim Munzuk was the embodiement of Dersu, short, powerful, wise in the ways of the wilderness, yet naive, superstitious, and nearly illiterate. He was man constantly on the move, trapping, hunting, fishing --a man without a home, being "at home" wherever he found himself when night fell --a man without a family as smallpox had robbed him of his wife and children. His tribe, the Goldi, were nearly extinct from disease and interbreeding. As he neared the end of his days, so did much of his world. Civilization chewed up Nature like a paper shredder. Much of the taiga today is held in nature reserves and parks. This marvelous film reasonates with me like a cross between THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS and BRAVE NEW WORLD.