Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1051 in VHS
• Released on: 1998-09-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Color, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 145 minutes

Customer Reviews

Yul Brynner HOT as usual
Interesting how one of the greatest novels of all time can play like a pretty good episode of General Hospital on the big screen, when placed in the right(?) hands. See it for YB, God rest his soul, and some interesting family intrigue. You will be entertained, but if you want more than that, READ the book!

Pale version of the novel
This was fair as a movie, but an extremely poor adaptation of one of the finest novels ever written. It would be comparable to a cartoon version of Hamlet. Cobb is outstanding as Fyodor and Brynner is quite good as Dmitri, but they are hamstrung by a phenomenally flat script. Shatner is a disaster as Alyosha and the other characters are not particularly memorable. If you have not read the book, this is a decently enjoyable film. The original story is pared down and the ending changed, but still OK for a light viewing. If you have read the novel, however, this film will be neither entertaining not elucidating.

Underrated.
It practically goes without saying that this Hollywood production is inadequate as an adaptation of a monumental novel. On the other hand, even when judged as an adaptation, "Brothers Karamazov" strikes me as superior to efforts to film similar weighty Russian novels such as "War and Peace" and "Dr. Zhivago." The elder Karamazov (Lee J. Cobb) and his four sons, including Yul Brynner, Richard Basehart, and William Shattner, are so sharply realized they have remained vivid in my memory for over four decades. The same goes for Maria Schell (whose alluring, enigmatic magnetism must have had the same effect on me as Garbo's persona is said to have had on audiences in the '30's) and Claire Bloom, the two women vying for Brynner's affections. Finally, credit the evocative score of Bronislaw Kaper ("On Green Dolphin Street") and the efficient yet imaginative direction of Richard Brooks (responsible for the equally underrated "Looking for Mr. Goodbar").

Were it not for this movie, I would never have nursed a life-long crush on Maria Schell (the vital and resonant Grushenka) or become devoted to Dostoesky's fiction. Worse, I might never have met the Grand Inquisitor and become engaged in a theological quest that continues unabated.