Le géant de la steppe

I really love the quirky nature of these Russian fairy tale films. Nutzoid english dubbing only enhances the warp factor (The US version entitled 'The Sword and the Dragon' even has Mike Wallace as a narrator) The characters are often quite bizarre (The makeup job on the wind demon is just too much, and I'm in love with the sword slinging dancing girl near the end of the film) Top it off with nifty puppetry (the dragon seems to clearly have been the inspiration for Japan's Ghidrah) makes this a true gem of kidvid madness!! I can't wait for the letterboxed Russian restoration which is scheduled to appear on DVD the end of 2001!!!

I remember seeing this film on the "Million Dollar Movie" on channel 9 {in the New York area} in the early 60s and I also had the Dell comic book adaptation.As a child it was impressive and it still holds up today.Basically its the story of the legendary Ilya Murometz{the Russian Giant}and his attempt to rid his land of the invading Tugars-in reality Mongols-who had their name changed for this film.The film features beautiful color photography, some massive battle scenes set against an Eisenstein like darkening sky, decent special effects like the Wind Demon, the Pig Man , the three headed fire dragon and some musical numbers too,including a sexy belly dancer at the Tugar's camp-adolescent fantasy material! .There probably is a pro Soviet message, but due to the fall of the Soviet Union it is no longer relevant.The acting which has often been criticized is actually pretty good on its own level, its just the English dubbing that somewhat works against it.An early example of the medieval themed "sword and sorcery" genre that became briefly popular in the 80s with films like "Excalibur" and "Conan the Barbarian", this one is entertaining, well produced and has an overall sense of innocence and wonder about it that is hard to resist. It may not be perfect, but it does what it has to do very well. Give it a shot. You might enjoy it.

I first saw this movie when I was about 12. Most recently I saw it on MST3000 and was appalled that they were making fun of it. It has some laughable moments and the quality of the print and the dubbing was poor even when I was 12 (and the movie was only 7). But the movie has some truly incredible scenes in it (the bad guy riding his horse to the top of hill made of the living bodies of his soldiers) and has a lot of content for a serious student of cinematic techniques.

I first saw this Russian/Soviet epic on WOR TV's "Million Dollar Theater" back in the 60s, on our old B&W set. I would compare it with Sergei Eisenstein's "Alexander Nevsky"-virtuous Russians fighting evil invaders, in this case with a big dose of fantasy, Russian folklore, and done on a Cecil B. DeMille scale. I have not read much about the making of this movie but I suspect most of the extras were Red Army soldiers, much the same way the Soviet Army provided all the extras for "Waterloo" in 1970. The acting probably is a little broad by our standards but they do things differently in other countries and seeing a foreign is like travel-you see something different. And this is a fantasy-were there any subtleties of expression in "Star Wars"? I think the 1950s special effects hold up even in our CGI era and they looked fine on a 14" B&W screen in 1963. A nice big bag of popcorn, a cold winter night-or just a rainy one, the lights down, sit back and enjoy the show.

Having really enjoyed all of what I've seen of Alexandr Ptushko's films so far(my favourites being Stone Flower and The Tale of Tsar Sultan), I knew that I would want to see Ilya Muromets, or The Epic Hero and the Beast/Sword and the Dragon. And this was despite the fact that it got dubbed and the MST3K treatment. If you saw the dubbed version, like with Sadko(The Magic Voyages of Sinbad) and Sampo(The Day the Earth Froze)- though not as badly affected- you'd think that Ilya Muromets was cheesy, over-the-top and senseless. But actually in my opinion, like with those other two films, if seen in its Russian version it is a beautiful and fun fantasy film that is easy to see why the gushing reviewers were captivated by it so much in childhood. I can understand why people will find that the actors over-act, I consider the acting quite noble and in keeping with the film's style and that the dub makes things too overly-broad. In terms of the film's titles also, the most fitting is the Russian one Ilya Muromets, the English ones are rather misleading in comparison. Even today Ilya Muromets looks really good, the cinematography is sweeping and the costumes and sets are gorgeous and colourful to watch. The special effects to me hold up pretty well, some better than others(the wind demon for example is much better designed than the dragon), with a really endearing charm to them. The music score is heroic and rousing, lyrical and beautiful, not once does it jar with any scene. The story is enthralling, there is a real sense of adventure that is sometimes wonderfully surreal but always thrilling yet there is a strong Russian folk-tale feel about it. Plus unlike its dub it's actually coherent. Ptusko does a splendid job directing, he never allows the film to be dull and just looking at it alone you can tell it's a Ptushko film. In conclusion, a very good and beautiful film and a fantasy unlike any other. While it is the least badly affected of the Ptushko films dubbed and MST3K-treated, it is deserving of a much better chance, deservedly the dubs are torn to shreds but it's not always remembered that the original Russian versions are really good films. 8/10 Bethany Cox