The Return

The Return
by Andrei Zvyagintsev

List Price: ~~$29.95~~
Our Price: $24.99
You Save: $4.96 (17%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $23.63 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases

Compare Prices for The Return

Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

DVD Cover Information

Actor: Galina Petrova, Ivan Dobronravov, Konstantin Lavronenko, Natalya Vdovina, Vladimir Garin
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Cinematographer: Mikhail Krichman
Editor: Vladimir Mogilevsky
Producer: Andrew Colton
Producer: Yelena Kovalyova
Writer: Vladimir Moiseyenko
Writer: Aleksandr Novototsky
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Russian (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-19
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Kino International

Movie Reviews of The Return

Movie Review: A CLASSIC GHOST STORY
Summary: 3 Stars

Before we can understnad the underlying themes in this film we have to provide our own answers to a few questions.

1. Why was the father gone for 12 years?
2. How did he know about the buried box on the island? Had he buried it, or did he have a map? What was in the box?
3. How did the boat, at film's end, instantly float, against wave action, 100 yards offshore.
4. How did the boat instantly sink, even though the boys had just rowed it across the vast lake?
5. Why, when Ivan looked at the family picture in the car, had the image of the father disappeared?

I believe that this is a classic ghost story that goes something like this:
The father robbed a bank, and his identity was discovered. He fled to the isolated island that he already knew about, and buried the money underneath the house. For 12 years he stayed there until he died of starvation.

Even though he died, he could not continue into the afterlife. He found that he was held back by unresolved issues concerning his wife, his sons, and the money. He returned to his home, where he was able to re-materialize because of his association with the living. Do you remember what the reaction was, of his wife, on the one night he spent with her? Something Isn't Quite Right.

The ghost believes he still has affection for his sons, which is why he takes them on the fishing trip. Although he shows intermittant affection, most of the time he seems burdened by their presence. They camp at the first fishing spot after he buys the outboard motor that came in on the fishing boat. Without that motor they cannot get to the isolated island.

On the island he digs up the can full of money from the old house, and clandestinly hides it in the boat. Because of his fall from the tower, the father is able to mimmic his death. There is no loss of blood or broken bones, only the declaration by the elder son that he is dead. On the long return trip to the car park, the father decides that he does not care about his wife or sons, only the money. The boys, after a mammoth attempt to drag the boat on shore, manage to get the camping gear to the car. Then they discover that the boat has floated a 100 yards off shore, and instantly sinks. The father has gone to his grave with the only thing he cared about....the money.

When Ivan looks at the family picture, the father image is no longer there because he has now passed into the afterlife. The End.

Write your own review

More The Return reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Summary of The Return

Studio: Kino International Release Date: 10/19/2004 Run time: 106 minutes

Art House & International DVD Video

Drama

DVD Video

Movies most talked about in Movies that won the Golden Lion in Venice

Hamlet - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2000-09-19; DVD
Best price: $15.50
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

Rashomon - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2002-03-26; DVD
Best price: $21.52
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

Forbidden Games - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2005-12-06; DVD
Best price: $19.95
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

Romeo and Juliet (138 Minutes. Full Length. Laurence Harvey, Susan Shentall
Published: 1954; DVD
Best price: $22.00

Carl Theodor Dreyer Special Edition Box Set (Day of Wrath, Ordet, Gertrud, and Carl Th. Dreyer - My Metier) - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2001-08-21; DVD
Best price: $54.86
Price in other shops: ~~$79.95~~

Aparajito
Release date: 2003-10-28; DVD
Best price: $18.23
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

General della Rovere
DVD
Best price: $53.99

Last Year in Marienbad (L'ann?e derni?re ? Marienbad) & Toute la m?moire du monde (short) [UK Import, PAL]
DVD
Best price: $20.99

Ivan's Childhood - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2007-07-24; DVD
Best price: $18.14
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

Hands Over the City - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2006-10-24; DVD
Best price: $26.99
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

Similar DVD Movies

Burnt by the Sun
Release date: 2003-07-15; DVD
Best price: $276.79

Ostrov (The Island), NTSC version with English subtitles (2006)
Published: 2006; DVD
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops: ~~$24.99~~

The Italian
Sony; Release date: 2007-05-22; DVD
Best price: $11.99
Price in other shops: ~~$19.94~~

Tycoon - A New Russian
Release date: 2004-06-29; DVD
Best price: $18.47
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

The Lives of Others
Sony; Release date: 2007-08-21; DVD
Best price: $12.25
Price in other shops: ~~$19.94~~

Siberiade (Complete and Uncut Version)
Release date: 2007-01-09; DVD
Best price: $17.40
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears
Release date: 2004-02-24; DVD
Best price: $19.23
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

Russian Ark: The Masterworks Edition
Release date: 2003-09-09; DVD
Best price: $12.09
Price in other shops: ~~$19.95~~

Brother
Release date: 2007-02-06; DVD
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: ~~$14.95~~

Prisoner of the Mountains
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2003-07-01; DVD
Best price: $4.48
Price in other shops: ~~$14.98~~