Change Your Image
zigfriedthewriter
Reviews
Taras Bulba (2009)
Good equipment and story along with some characters, terrible special effects
Saw this movie just yesterday and I remembered the book I read in high school. Book I remember vaguely, read it a long time ago, but I did like this movie, especially because of the excellent play by the main actor and the story about the Cossack lifestyle. Novel is written in the high romantic era during the boom of nationalist feelings and its well represented on the screen (although I am not so sure was there so much Tsarists love with the Cossack when many of them were escaped surfs). Cossack lifestyle is hard, based on war, plunder and raiding like Mongols or Vikings of ages past and this movie shows that life and consequences of living it - hatred by more "civilized" Poles and Turks or struggle with other nomadic raiders like Tatars. Cossacks because of that fight against everyone, are suspicious to everyone (like Jews) and are only shown to trust those of their own Orthodox faith. Actors that portrayed Cossacks are mostly good, especially Taras Bulba. By the end of the movie you really become one with him and start to understand him and his struggle against the world while he is losing more and more. Poles are well done, they have every right to hate the Cossacks with them constantly raiding their towns. Final scene when Polish colonel when he spares his daughters son is also strong, you then see the glimpse of Taras Bulba if he was on the other side. Greatest flaw in this movie are special effects, rain that falls from clear sky, "wounds" in some cases along with soundtrack that could have been done a lot better when I see how much was invested in this movie. They are so weak that look like they were done for some small budget student movie, not a blockbuster financed by the Russian government. It is clearly seen that this is a Russian propaganda movie, but a very weak one, the only time I was really moved was with the ominous Taras Bulba's last words when they were burning him alive, the rest of the Cossacks haven't managed to give that same feel. Overall, good movie, but the ridiculous failure of the special effects reduces rating greatly.