Product Details

• Actors: Rossano Brazzi, Alida Valli
• Directors: Goffredo Allesandrini
• Format: Box set, Black & White, Director's Cut, Full length, Restored, Subtitled, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 2
• VHS Release Date: May 28, 1994
• Run Time: 174 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004LC7U
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,790 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite, March 22, 2000

By 

Trinadol Gheldron (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ayn Rand - WE THE LIVING [VHS] (VHS Tape)

An exquisite, passionate, indelible portrait of powerful individuals trapped in the selfless tomb of collectivism. The humanity of the film is made all the more heartbreaking because of its backdrop of menace and hopelessness. A treasure. No wonder Mussolini banned it.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best foreign film ever made, January 21, 2003

By 

Mike Renzulli (Phoenix, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ayn Rand - WE THE LIVING [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie was originally released in Italy in two parts. "Noi Vivi" ("We're Alive") and "Adio Kira" ("Farewell Kira"). Set in post-revolutionary Russia, this film was originally encouraged for production by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini because he thought it was of an anti-communist nature.

Mussolini later banned it because of the film's anti-totalitarian/pro-individual rights message. I would like to think that this movie helped plant the seeds that lead to Mussolini's downfall and I believe Ayn Rand saw "We The Living" too before she died and she loved it.

My family on my dad's side lived in Italy when Mussolini was dictator and I am involved in the libertarian and Objectivist movements so I appreciate this movie from three perspectives.

While I wish the movie wasn't so long and expensive to purchase, I think, all-in-all, it is the best foreign film ever made!

Everything else about this film is wonderful and belongs in any serious movie goer's collection. I hope at some point a DVD version of this movie can be done too. If more of films like this interest you, in addition to "The Fountainhead", I also recommend "Herod's Law", "Bitter Sugar", "Guantanamera", "The Official Story", "Farewell My Concubine" and last (but certainly not least) "Life Is Beautiful".

To the cast and crew of this film: "Bravo dove mai lei sono!"

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Russians speaking Italian, with English subtitles, March 4, 2001

By 

M J Miller (Park City, UT, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ayn Rand - WE THE LIVING [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Hollywood has never done Rand justice. Gary Cooper was a wooden Howard Roark in King Vidor's "The Fountainhead", and Rand's own adapted screenplay left viewers scratching their heads about her "message". The recent "Passion of Ayn Rand" is just a cheap ad hominum attack. This film breathes life into her work. The actors are physically perfect, passionate instead of talky. Alida Valli is gorgeous in the lead role. The smokey black and white is perfect for 1917 Russia, and the production quality rivals Hollywood's best for that era. It's hard to believe this film was essentially a bootleg, made witout the authorization or cooperation of the book's author. When Rand saw the "discovered" print in the early 1980's, she loved it.