Kurosawa's genius has been fully outlined all over the IMDB so let me just add a few quips about this seldom discussed film. First and foremost, one of the best nature films ever shot in 70mm and second, a refreshing handling of cosmotheism without grandstanding. The creation and development of the character Dersu Uzala was stunning and Maksim Munzuk's portrayal brilliant.
That being said, one point of contention. For the wily Captain Vladimir Arseniev to lock Dersu down in the hell of a 20th century city simply because he needed glasses, bothered me when I saw this film fifteen years ago, and it stills bothers me today. Oh sure, many would say chiding Kurosawa about that is like bringing up slaves and Jefferson but by God even Leo X used glasses to improve his hunting in the 16th Century! Surly there was one affordable pair of spectacles in Eastern Russia in 1907. Couldn't the tiger have ripped his leg off instead?
That being said, one point of contention. For the wily Captain Vladimir Arseniev to lock Dersu down in the hell of a 20th century city simply because he needed glasses, bothered me when I saw this film fifteen years ago, and it stills bothers me today. Oh sure, many would say chiding Kurosawa about that is like bringing up slaves and Jefferson but by God even Leo X used glasses to improve his hunting in the 16th Century! Surly there was one affordable pair of spectacles in Eastern Russia in 1907. Couldn't the tiger have ripped his leg off instead?