The Desert of the Tartars
by Valerio Zurlini
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Giuliano Gemma, Helmut Griem, Jacques Perrin, Philippe Noiret, Vittorio GassmanDirector: Valerio Zurlini
Brand: Ryko Distribution
Writer: Valerio Zurlini
Producer: Bahman Farmanara
Producer: Enzo Giulioli
Producer: Giorgio Silvagni
Writer: Andr? G. Brunelin
Writer: Dino Buzzati
Writer: Jean-Louis Bertucelli
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; French (Original Language); Italian (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 140 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-01-31
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Noshame
Movie Reviews of The Desert of the Tartars
Movie Review: Imaginary enemies
Summary: 4 Stars
Very little happens in Valerio Zurlini's The Desert of the Tartars two-and-a-half hours, which is exactly the point, as Jacques Perrin's initially ambitious young officer is posted to a magnificent desert fort overlooking the spectacular ruins of an ancient city on a non-existent border where soldiers wait endlessly for a possibly imagined enemy to give a sense of focus and purpose to their lives. Yet the Tartars remain the stuff of rumours and legends, the visually striking fort (Arge-E-Bam in Iran) a quietly malignant place, its very walls infested with an unidentifiable disease that slowly destroys its inhabitants. Yes, we're in allegory territory here, with the human condition distilled down to waiting and planning for a moment that may never happen, with all the malaise that entails, and it's a film you're either going to be drawn into or find two-and-a-half hours of pure tedium. One of the few films to show how cold and inhospitable the desert can be, there are vague similarities to the considerably less successful Fort Saganne in the way it undermines the expectations of a Beau Geste-like adventure in favour of the malaise and unrealised expectation that was really the stuff of a career-killing desert posting. With an impressively varied international cast - Max Von Sydow, Phillipe Noiret, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Helmut Griem and Fernando Rey among them - and boasting fine cinematography by Luciano Tovoli, it's not for all tastes but it certainly casts a spell on those it ensnares.
NoShame's DVD offers a fine 1.85:1 transfer, though there is some slight droppoff and wobble in the soundtrack (more music than dialogue). Extras include a 35 minute interview with Tovoli, trailer, stills gallery and a bonus CD of Ennio Morricone's brooding, oppressive score.
Summary of The Desert of the Tartars
BEAU GESTE meets WAITING FOR GODOT in this haunting adaptation of renowned Italian writer Dino Buzzati??Ts controversial 1938 novel about life, honor, mystery, paranoia and death during wartime.For his first commission, infantry lieutenant Drogo (Jacques Perrin) is stationed at a remote desert garrison on the mist-shrouded border of the North Kingdom. Filling their days with endless drilling, the soldiers of Fortezza Bastiani spend the long nights wondering about an enemy no one has ever seen. As the days stretch into months, the strain of waiting for attack takes its toll on Drago??Ts comrades: sadistic Major Mattis (Giuliano Gemma), sardonic Lieutenant Simeon (Helmut Griem), cynical medic Rovine (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and humiliated Captain Hortiz (Max von Sydow).
Rarely screened outside Europe since its 1976 premiere, Il Deserto dei Tartari (DESERT OF THE TARTARS) was the last film from Italian director Valerio Zurlini before his death in 1982 and also features legendary actors Vittorio Gassman, Philippe Noiret, Fernando Rey, and Francisco Rabal.
A multi-national co-production, DESERT OF THE TARTARS makes atmospheric use of Iran??Ts 2000 year-old Bam Citadel, where Zurlini filmed on the eve of the 1979 revolution that changed world politics forever. As timely now as the day it was made, DESERT OF THE TARTARS is a study of the madness of warfare in the tradition of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and APOCALYPSE NOW.
Included an exclusive ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK by Ennio Morricone
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