Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46111 in VHS
• Released on: 1993-05-19
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Original language: Russian
• Number of tapes: 2
• Running time: 224 minutes

Customer Reviews

Bad subtitles ruin good movie!!!
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!

Awesome
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).

Quality Production
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.