Customer Reviews

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich [VHS]

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Tom Courtenay stars as the title character in the bleak, colorless and nightmarish recreation of the Russian gulag penal system in "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovish". Based on the novel by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, this joint British and Norwegian production filmed in the remote and bleak northernmost province of Norway, depicts one typical day of a 10 year prison sentence.

In the desolate and freezing Siberian tundra the unfortunate Ivan Denisovich exhibits a desperate will to survive. Working under horrendous conditions under scrutiny from guards and prisoners as well, Courtenay and his work group must fulfill their work quota under the threat of starvation. He manages to muster small favors from his fellow prisoners throughout the day which earns him extra food, tobacco and privileges.

Having survived the day all he can look forward to is another one frought with similar perils as he attempts to outlive the remainder of his sentence.

The first and, thus far, only book from Nobel prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to reach the American film market, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch" is a depiction of a day in the gulag -- the Soviet string of forced labor camps the government sent its citizens to in the Stalin era from the 1920s through Stalin's death in 1953.

Solzhenitsyn wrote the book after his first encampment in a labor camp, having been arrested for crimes that didn't exist. Aside from the other content comments, the thing I would add that is most telling is Ivan Denisovitch has a good day this day because, during meal time, he finds in his fish soup the fish's eye. While abhorrent to the rest of us, this made for a splendid day in the gulag.

Tom Courtenay was perhaps not the best choice to play the lead but it would hardly have mattered what actors were selected. If you have read the book, Solzhenitsyn's first and most accessible, you know it's part of his lifelong expose of what he detailed more finely in The Gulag Archipelago.

This is the simplest and easiest introduction to the harrowing world Solzhenitsyn lived in, wrote about, and whose books floated around the Soviet Union for years, chapters at a time, being passed from person to person. Here, you get to ingest the whole thing visually.

Anyone else having an interest in Russia or 20th century European history would benefit from giving this film a look.

Only the master, Solzhenitsyn, could tell such a powerful story so very simply. In one day in one man's life in the Soviet Gulag, he shows us that the human spirit can remain human in the worst of circumstances. Watch it if you can and remember this happened and will certainly happen again if we forget.

Please, Criterion, bring this out on dvd!

I remember watching this film years ago, having read the book years before that. It is a grim look at the horrific conditions endured by the wretched inmates of the Soviet GULAG. It does capture the human spirit at the edge of existence, with various ways in which that spirit survives or fails when put to the most extreme tests. As such it is a testament not only to those who endured and died in the death camps in the USSR, but a glimpse into the hells that tyrants have created for their fellowmen thorughout the ages. Should be required viewing in the schools. I second the hope that this gets issued somehow on DVD and gets made more widely available...

I was fascinated to see this movie bring Solzhenitsyn's book to life. I'd seen bits of it as child before I'd read the novel and had always wanted to get a copy. Tom Courtney was wonderfully cast as Shukov. The rest of the cast was great also. The work gang's boss, the Baptists, the guards. My heart bled for "The Captain" again. Everybody who studies totalitarianism would do well to watch this film. The cinematography was gripping, you could feel the cold. "how can a man who's warm understand a man who's cold?"

The price was a bit high for a used VHS tape, and it is a bit iffy in places. It gets off-track, but for the most part, it is in good shape. I will purchase from this seller again.

Shows the brutality of the Russian penal system under the old KGB oriented Communist system. A view for anyone looking for a comparison of the former Soviet Union penal system and those of the free world.