Product Details

• Actors: Stepan Shkurat, Semyon Svashenko, Yuliya Solntseva, Yelena Maksimova, Nikolai Nademsky
• Directors: Aleksandr Dovzhenko
• Format: Black & White, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: Russian
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: January 22, 2002
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005TNFX
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,577 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Earth" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 01/22/2002 Run time: 101 minutes Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Image '97 DVD edition, UK 2010 DVD edition of EARTH, July 24, 2002

By 

keviny01 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Earth (DVD)

The Image DVD version of the 1930 Russian silent film EARTH has a disappointing video transfer. It is made from the same video source that was used for Kino's VHS tape version released in 1991 ... . The image is replete with scratches, dirt, and looks out of focus (which often indicates duplication from another source). Fortunately, the film's artistic audacity -- its striking compositions and innovative editing -- makes it watchable despite of the poor video quality.

The DVD also includes a still-frame reconstruction of Sergei Eisenstein's 1937 lost film BEZHIN MEADOW, a film about an allegorical struggle between the "old" and the "young". The video quality is much better here, but still isn't as sharp and clean as the edition included in Criterion's EISENSTEIN: THE SOUND YEARS DVD set. (The Criterion disc even includes a few extras such as production photos and articles on BEZHIN MEADOW, while the Image disc has none.)

Image's EARTH (and Criterion's EISENSTEIN: THE SOUND YEARS, for that matter) is an all-region DVD.


**6/5/10 EDIT:**

Just want to add my review of the new 2010 DVD edition released by Mr. Bongo Film of UK. This is without a doubt the best-looking edition of EARTH to date. There are still many visible damages on the print, but it excels over the '97 Image edition in sharpness, contrast, and brightness, while also showing more picture on all four sides of the screen. It restores the original Russian intertitles (supported by optional English subtitles), as opposed to the redone English intertitles used on the Image disc. The differences in intertitle usages and possibly a change in projection speed may also explain why this UK disc runs 77 minutes instead of just 70 minutes on the Image disc. The UK disc is all-region, but in PAL, of course, so US customers would need DVD players that can do PAL-to-NTSC conversion. The UK disc also has better audio quality, with a new score by Alexander Popov recorded in crisp LPCM stereo, as opposed to the crummy-sounding audio on the Image disc that does not do justice to the excellent orchestral score by Stephen P. Hill. This being a UK DVD, you can also order it at Amazon UK.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classical Ukrainian Beauty, April 10, 2003

By 

Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Earth (DVD)

Earth was supposed to be a Russian propaganda film promoting collectivism. Instead, Aleksandr wrote a love story extolling the beauty of the Ukrainian countryside and promoting the cycle of life and death there amidst the natural beauty and plentiful bounty of nature.

You can see the basic outline that the Russians wanted. Backwards farmers resist tractors coming in to make their life better. Rich landowners are upset at upstart farmers coveting their lands. But look beyond that, to the way the people interact, to the straw-roofed houses, the dancing, the fields of wheat, the love of the land. Appreciate the beautiful way in which the film was done, capturing a series of picture-perfect scenes that would be gorgeous if framed and hung on a wall.

This is definitely a movie to savor and to appreciate the lush landscape that was pre-Stalin Ukraine. I was fortunate enough to watch Earth with my parents and both sets of my godparents, and tape recorded their commentary to it. For me, that commentary will serve far better than the default musical soundtrack that comes with the film. If you can, watch the film with older Ukrainians, or read commentary on the web to get a sense of what this time was all about.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the Ages, February 23, 2004

By 

Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Earth [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Stalin may have wanted an ode to collective agriculture; what he got instead was a hymnal to mother nature and the toiling offspring who dwell in her bosom. Those opening shots of pulsating fields waving in the wind have no equal for sheer evocative power. Earth is revealed at once as a living, breathing being and bountiful provider. Flower, fruit, decay, renewal -- nature's timeless cycle. The soundless imagery is at times so wonderfully lyrical that contemporary viewers may be led to recognize how much has been lost to the technology-driven cinema of today. Even the occasional plot crudities are rescued by a style that is both brilliant and unerringly pictorial. Close-ups of weather-worn peasants, a lone kulak and oxen beneath an immense sky, great rolling plains and far horizons of the Ukrainian breadbasket -- this is the sheer lyrical sweep of the Dovchenko masterpiece, a montage that transcends all obstacles, real and man-made. Not even the estimable John Ford frames primitive elements as grandly as this. There are flaws. Too many rushing crowd scenes appear without purpose, except to mimic Eisenstein's "march of history", while the propaganda thread at times blends uneasily with the lyrical. Still and all, Dovchenko pulls off the theme of new beginning more seamlessly than might be expected. Far from being a mere relic of the silent era, or an ode to Stalinist collectivism, Earth remains an enduring testament to the power of cinema as sheer visual poetry.