Customer Reviews

The Brothers Karamazov ( The Murderer Dmitri Karamazov ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

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I have mixed feelings about this movie. For one side, I find it awful; a complete oversimplification of one of the all time literary masterpieces, too focused on just one of the three main characters. But in the other side, one must understand that it's impossible to visually encase -not even in a 9 hours long miniseries, much less in a two hours movie- all the religious, philosophic and melodramatic issues of such pivotal book.
Given that, I appreciate the excellent production values and the few, short scenes that are almost carbon copied from the book. It also has a very fluid pacing and great narrative string. And the cast is near perfection: I can't imagine anybody else playing Father Karamazov than Lee C. Jacobs; also perfect as Dimitri is macho man par excellence Yul Brynner . And although I would like to see Richard Basehart looking 10 years younger, he is Ivan Karamazov. There was no better actor to portray the layers of complexity of this character; cold and intellectual in the surface but at the same time conflicted with both the sensual instincts of Dimitri and the mystical concerns of younger Alexsei. William Shatner and Albert Sami are very good also; my only cast quibble is Maria Schell as Grushenka, I find her simply annoying!
And that's my ultimate content about this movie: it has such an excellent cast that it's a pity its main focus is Dimitri's and that we don't get to see much of the others ... just imagine what an extra five minutes scene showing Ivan's delirium with his devil would had added to the movie ...
In the end, it's still good to own it. But please, oh please, powers to be, give us a proper DVD release. This item is a Spanish DVD release with the original English and also Spanish dubbed soundtrack. Neither the quality of the sound or the image is very good, but watchable enough. Despite falling short on almost everything but the great cast, this movie deserves wider availability.

I have been waiting for over ten years or more to acquire this movie, which was only available on VHS. It's an inspiring masterpiece, with powerful casting and a ferociously romantic saga. Yul Brynner is in his best magnetic role. Don't miss it!