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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 7542
Released: March 25, 2008 |
| Our Price: $7.87 |
| Used Price: $10.56 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Set in the 16th century Ukraine two Cossack brothers find themselves battling each other when one wants to recover land from the treacherous Poles and the other falls in love with a Polish girl. Breathtaking scenes. Academy Award Nominations: Best (original) Score.System Requirements:Running Time; 122 mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 883904103073 Manufacturer No: M110307
Description of Taras Bulba:
"I will kiss the devil before my son wears a Polish collar!" declares Cossack warrior Taras Bulba, thus laying down the fundamental conflict of this epic film, based on the classic book by Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol. After the Polish army and the Cossacks defeat the Turks, the Poles betray their fierce collaborators in order to claim the Cossacks' ancestral home, the Steppes. Scattered, the Cossacks bide their time, and Bulba (Yul Brynner) sends his son Andrei (Tony Curtis) to a Polish college to learn the secrets of their culture. Though Andrei faces cruelty and prejudice, he falls in love with a Polish noblewoman, Natalia (Christine Kaufmann, a lovely German actress in one of her few English-language roles). Andrei, torn by love and loyalty to his people, risks everything in a desperate attempt to win Christine, even if it pits him against his own father. Taras Bulba is far from a great film--there are some laughable special effects, the battle scenes are confused and sluggish, and Curtis never quite loses his Bronx accent. Despite that, Curtis' star power comes through, and Yul Brynner tears up the screen with his amazing physical presence and emotional intensity; the man was truly a unique and compelling actor, who found only a few roles that suited him--this was one. By the end, Gogol's muscular plot catches you in its grip. The hypnotically gripping final scenes overcome all the cheesiness that came before. --Bret Fetzer
Taras Bulba Reviews:
Strange Misfire of an Epic 
2009-12-26 - This is an unexplored area of history (and geography!) in Hollywood cinema. Unfortunately, this movie leaves it just as obscure as it ever was. While Brynner is excellent in the title role (at least with what script he was given), Tony Curtis was woefully miscast.
While I don't know much about the Cossacks, one has to imagine that theirs was a tremendously different culture that what most viewers would recognize. This is left more or less undeveloped by the script, except to make sure we know that those Cossacks, they boozed it up a lot.
The love story between Curtis and the Polish girl is just sort of silly: love at first sight, etc., etc. The very odd soft-focus glaucoma-effect photography doesn't help. In fact, it comes across as laughable now.
The action pieces are unsatisfactory as well. I will say that there are probably as many horses used in this picture as in any movie I've ever seen, so that's quite a spectacle. But just many (MANY) minutes of horses and their riders tearing across the landscape does not an exciting action scene make.
This story could probably be retold by a director not afraid to explore a stangely different culture, and with a more complete vision of how to tell an exciting story. I'm giving it 3 stars simply because of Brynner and the fact that the effort was put forth.
Could have been truer to Gogol's classic book
2009-11-20 - Good old Yul ( actually a Ukrainian who never admitted his heritage and instead preferred to offer the public various absurd explanations of his ancestry ) is perfect for this role and its no wonder that this project was so important to him in so many ways. The Cossacks were among the world's most outstanding warriors. They offered unrelenting and valorious battle to the Ottoman Turks, Mongol Tartars, and invading Poles while facing the overwhelming numbers of these enemy forces. History must recognize the Cossack as the most outstanding horseman any culture ever produced. A Cossack could slice an enemy in half with a single blow from his sword arm. He fought with halberd, pike, mace, warclub, spear, and sword. His courage in the face of superior enemy numbers was unquestionable and a matter of historic record. Such were those rustic, scalp-locked riders of the Ukrainian Steppes!
This movie is good, but that's all. Hollywood ruined it - PERIOD ! Considering WHO the people were who ran studios in those days, its no surprise either. At least the script could have followed the story Nicholi Gogol wrote in which Taras Bulba meets his end as a Polish captive who is burned at the stake. This would have been an ending that would have allowed Yul's macho persona to really electrify the screen since Gogol's character is defiant and haughty toward his enemies even as the flames licked at his legs! Instead this movie offers the viewer an ending that is mush! A pathetic excuse of a finale in which the Cossacks become humane toward enemies who had been utterly inhuman toward them for decades! Absurd and sickening! However, some of the battle scenes are worth watching just in themselves.
Anyway, it could have been better, but at least its something in terms of Medieval Eastern European history on film.
Taras Bulba
2009-11-17 - I first saw this when I was ten years old. I was at home one day, sick with the flu, watching TV. This movie came on and I loved it! I fell in love with Tony Curtis, and I thought this movie was SO ROMANTIC! That beautiful music played over and over in my head for a long time! I was furious with Yul Brynner for shooting Tony!!! I was upset for weeks that Tony had to die like that! I watched it again the other day for the first time in forty years....All I can say is...in my defense, the first time I saw it, I was a silly, romantic kid, and obviously out of my head with fever or SOMETHING! The scenery in the film is wonderful...the music is lovely...But let's just say, it did not do for me what it did when I was ten!
I am glad I bought it, though, and watched it again...just to relive a little part of my childhood. I still like Tony! Say what you will about him...he WAS gorgeous!
Taras Bulba 
2009-08-31 - Both Tony Curtis and Yul Brynner put in a great acting performance in this action film. Very interesting plot, plenty of villains and heroes and great action scenes. Rolling landscape and very cool costumes! This is considered to be a classic with good reason. This gets a strong recommendation for my money.
Taras Bulba on DVD at last!!
2009-07-11 - Taras Bulba
For years, my brother & I would phone each other each time this classic epic movie aired on TV, to make sure that we didn't miss out on seeing it. I am so excited to finally have it on DVD! An all-time favourite - drama, betrayal, laughter, tears, love - a father for his sons, a man & a woman for each other, men for their country.
