Product Details

• Actors: Georgi Taratorkin, Irina Gosheva, Viktoriya Fyodorova, Yevgeni Lebedev, Yefim Kopelyan
• Directors: Lev Kulidzhanov
• Format: Box set, Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Language: Russian
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 2
• Studio: Xenon
• VHS Release Date: May 19, 1993
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301540298
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16,358 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #17 in	Video > Art House & International > European Cinema > Russia
  #20 in	Video > Art House & International > By Original Language > Russian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad subtitles ruin good movie!!!, January 19, 1999

By A Customer

A visually impressive film that is faithful to Dostoevsky's novel. However, the bad black-and-white print of the movie is made even worse by the fact that the subtitles are in white -- in most scenes, they are completely unreadable!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, July 5, 2003

By	Dhaval Vyas (Dallastown, PA U.S.A) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was lucky to find an acutal Russian movie version of 'Crime and Punishment'. It was made in the 70s, but is in black and white. The directors and producers have done a fine job here in staying faithful to the book and going into the mind of the main character. It was the very psychological book and so is the movie. The movie is not as sad as the book though because very few people could duplicate Foydor's mastery. Read the book and then watch this movie (if you can find it).

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quality Production, October 12, 2001

By	Kenneth S. Cargill (Tucson, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Gauging from the numerous limitations of a Soviet era production, this is an excellent piece of work and a worhty adaptation of the original novel. I doubt that more modern, American productions could capture the Russian feel and ultimate focus that Dostoevsky was concerned about (the book, D.'s only true commercial success within his lifetime, was a reaction against various similar murders in Pertersburg in the 1860's, and a direct attack on all the radical Bazarovs. _The Demons_, written a little later, is the masterpiece culmination of the "superman, socialist, nihilist" type character(s) and plot).

The subtitles are hardly a distraction. If you know the novel, even in those scenes where the subtitles are completely whited out, then you understand what the characters are saying.

The acting ranges from good to okay to poor, good being Porfiry and Raskolnikov, okay Dunia, Sonya, and Svivdrigalov [sp]. Poor acting jobs go to Luzhin, who while the most flat and one dimensional character of the novel, was given a general lackadasial portrayal.

Obviously, there were many scenes and ideas cut (the dream about the peasant and the horse, haymarket and most of the bar scenes, Svivdrigalov's struggle at the end, and finally the entire epilogue in Siberia). But that's to be expected.

Though there are some outstanding scenes that truly live up to the novel. The classic scene where the quiet man runs up to Raskolnikov's flat and walks away, only to bark back when Raskolnikov pursues "Murderer!" is an excellent example. The concluding scenes at the police station also do justice to the final paragraphs, as well as the character of the lieutenant.