Dersu Uzala Reviews

Beauteous wanderings in Siberia

An epic journey of life, your companions being a 'civilised' Russian army surveying team and an old man as your guide. A man who has truly fused with the wild Taiga landscapes so beauteously captured within this epic. Just sit back and RELAX on this ANTI-roller-coaster ride. Best viewed as big as you can get it, as silently as you can get it. GET IT?! No? Go back to the Matrix then...

Great film, but only HALF of it ! :((((

Excellent film from Kurosawa, and an unusual one at that -- made in Russia and about Russia....

BUT

it's spread over TWO discs, and ONLY ONE is available to rent. Isn't this BIZARRE?

I hope the staff are reading the notes and this will be fixed soon.

Great film ruined

This simply has to be the worst DVD transfer I've ever seen. Perhaps they couldn't find a better print to digitize, but the colours are washed out, the image is excessively grainy, the frame jumps and flickers. I gave up after half an hour. A disappointment, because I saw this film many years ago, and remembered it particularly it beautiful colours and landscapes. Perhaps it will be restored at some point.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Worlds meet in Siberia

If you were expecting katana-wielding samurai from 16th century Japan...wrong film. Here, Kurosawa explores the theme of friendship, which develops between two people from vastly different backgrounds, the Russian explorer Arseniev and the Goldi hunter Dersu Uzala. A friendship that is born from the fight for survival in the vast, relentless, unforgiving Siberian landscape.

Expect two DVDs and the movie to be spread over both of them (it was the same when I rented Tarkovsky's 'Solaris', so it must be a Russian thing). I would have made more sense to put the movie in one and the extras, which are well-worth watching, in the other, but whatever. And the negative must have been in really bad shape, because the colors are totally off, specially at the beginning.

Anyway, if you are in a contemplative mood, the topic and specially the pacing of this movie is just right. No samurai, though. REALLY.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Only received Disc 2

I have had this film on my wish list for quite some time and was therefore disappointed to see that only Disc 2 arrived. Please make sure you check this when you get the film as it makes no sense to watch only half of it!

Both parts are included

It is true that the film is spread over two discs, butting having just got it through the post I can tell you that both discs arrived together in one packet (and counting for one rental).

Siberian odissey

I believe this is the only movie that the director shot outside Japan. I nice insight into life in Siberia. Beautiful landscapes. A bit slow.

Customer Review

If you're going to rent this, make sure you rent both discs. The movie is spread over 2 discs, so if you just rent disc 1, you only get to watch half the movie. The movie (the half that i've seen) is brilliant though, just bear that in mind.

Customer Review

Tolstoy apparently once described to a friend the thoughts of a crow they were both watching and the friend exclaimed 'By God, Lev Nikolaevich, you are that crow!' Well, Maxim Monguzhukovich Munzuk is Dersu Uzala. Kurosawa apparently waited years to make this film and was only eventually able to do so through Soviet funding. The wait was worth it: this is one of the finest films ever made. Why did we have to wait until 2007 for a Region 2 DVD?

My only concern is the loss of some of the essence of it on the small screen

At one with nature

Scenic, paced film which pays hommage to man's relationship with the wilderness.

I loved it but my kids/husband hated it.