I remember this movie well as a kid going to see it in theater which is the only place it really should be seen. The Sword And The Dragon is the English dubbed version of the Russian film about their legendary hero, Ilya Murometz. In size and scope it's like some of Charlton Heston's films at the time.
In the Russian culture Ilya Murometz is a knight errant with no membership at anybody's Round Table. Several of the stories about him are included in The Sword And The Dragon. The main plot line however is the repelling of those rather ugly looking Asiatics who are called Tugars in this film as opposed to Tartars.
A Russian subject is best done by Russians. I have to say in watching the film again if you stop it at just about any given point it will look like a medieval painting or tapestry. The way D.W. Griffith's Birth Of A Nation looks like a moving picture of that Matthew Brady could have produced had moving pictures been invented then. The set designers should get lots of recognition for their achievement.
The special effects, the wind demon, the dragon also come in for kudos. They're out of date now, but Cecil B. DeMille couldn't have done better. I'm sure the Russians probably studied his work to get it right.
I'm glad to read that the film has been restored. After being in theaters here it was on Million Dollar Movie for years and I saw it many times during the Sixties.
I'll bet it would do good business for a family audience even today.
In the Russian culture Ilya Murometz is a knight errant with no membership at anybody's Round Table. Several of the stories about him are included in The Sword And The Dragon. The main plot line however is the repelling of those rather ugly looking Asiatics who are called Tugars in this film as opposed to Tartars.
A Russian subject is best done by Russians. I have to say in watching the film again if you stop it at just about any given point it will look like a medieval painting or tapestry. The way D.W. Griffith's Birth Of A Nation looks like a moving picture of that Matthew Brady could have produced had moving pictures been invented then. The set designers should get lots of recognition for their achievement.
The special effects, the wind demon, the dragon also come in for kudos. They're out of date now, but Cecil B. DeMille couldn't have done better. I'm sure the Russians probably studied his work to get it right.
I'm glad to read that the film has been restored. After being in theaters here it was on Million Dollar Movie for years and I saw it many times during the Sixties.
I'll bet it would do good business for a family audience even today.