Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Fact /Fantasy Film!!, August 22, 2002
By A Customer
The original Russian title of the 1956 film "The Sword and the Dragon"was "Ilya Mporometz",Boris Andreyev plays a legendary Russian hero of the Middle ages where fact and fantasy merge by not fighting with his human enemies but with 3 headed fire breathing dragons and other strange obstacles.This is an an excellent fact/fantasy film!!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A briefly shown sword,a draconian cameo&a paunchy middle-aged hero, November 30, 2007
"The Sword and the Dragon" was famously skewered (and charbroiled,with mesquite sauce) by the MST3K crew;it's a wonderfully bad fantasy epic. The sword is briefly mentioned as a family heirloom of the hero,Ilya Muromets; the three-headed dragon doesn't appear until the last ten minutes of the movie. The soundtrack is great,but the dialogue is florid and clunky. It takes people five minutes to say something simple.
"The Sword and the Dragon" has an unlikely hero-the chunky,middle-aged Ilya Muromets. He looks more like a candidate for Santa Claus than the heroic savior of Russia. Ilya sets out on his quest, with his miraculously growing horse (all it needs is a bath in mountain dew) He battles a wind demon. He's mistaken for a commoner,but the prince elevates him. Russia is being invaded by evil Tugars (who look a lot like Mongols) Ilya is accused of treason&imprisoned,but his trophy wife's magical blanket feeds him. Ilya's hope was that his wife had a son (one wonders how he would've reacted to a daughter). When his wife is taken captive,his son "Little Falcon" is raised by the Tugars. When the Tugars invade again,Little Falcon takes Ilya on in combat,to get a "Falcon,I am your father" speech. Priceless Oedipal scene. The movie ends with Ilya,his son&heroic Russians battling the confused-looking three-headed dragon.
"The Sword and the Dragon" lacks eye candy for heroes,sophisticated special effects,and good dialogue--but it makes for fun viewing and a good laugh. It's a loveable bad movie,made in the USSR!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Russian Movie EVER!, October 15, 2006
This is the story of Ilya Morometz. Ilya's an alright guy, but his legs won't work for some reason. He can only watch helplessly while his beloved country is plundered by a Mongolian race known as the Tugars. Then, one day, his life is changed forever. Some strangers visit his house and give him a special kind of dew to drink that restores his legs to full health once again. Ilya celebrates by rooting up large tree stumps and throwing them off a cliff. He tells his parents he'd like to work on the farm again but he has to stop those dog gone Tugars first.
So Ilya sets out to destroy all the Tugars. After mounting his mighty steed, Chestnut Gray, he neglects the roads that lead to riches and a wife, and instead sets out on the road that leads to death. He defeats a wind demon and takes the demon back to the prince of his land. The prince gives Ilya a ring for conquering the demon, and so Ilya is on the prince's good side. But not for long...
You see, there are traitors in the palace whose loyalty is with the Tugars. They tell the prince horrible lies about Ilya and the prince is...well...kind of gullible. He orders Ilya to be locked in a dungeon, but to be fed well. The sneaky traitors disobey the prince and won't even give Ilya a scrap of food. Ilya only survives with the help of a magic blanket his wife made for him. It has a picture of a tree on it that somehow is able to grow real fruit. It's a miracle!
When the traitors are discovered and Ilya is freed from prison, he comes up with a very complicated plan to stop the Tugars. To this day I still have no idea what Ilya's plan was. I guess it doesn't really matter though. He and his men kill the three-headed dragon of the Tugars and save the kingdom of the prince. The prince invites Ilya to become a noble or something, but Ilya declines and tells the prince to accept his son as a noble instead. I believe the last line of the film is, "We shall be proud to have with us the son of Ilya Morometz!" Awesome movie.
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