the m0vie blog

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Chris Lavery and Niall Glynn, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, Akira Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala.

On a routine survey mission into the Russian wilderness, Captain Arsenyev comes a cross a local tracker and hunter named Dersu Uzala. Dersu agrees to guide the expedition on their journey through the forest. An unlikely bond is forged between Arsenyev and Dersu, as civilisation begins its encroachment into this previously isolated space.

At time of recording, it was ranked 156th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Show Notes:

• Recorded 11th January 2022.
• Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
• Dersu Uzala at The Internet Movie Database.
• The Top 250 at time of recording.
• Follow Niall on Twitter.
• Listen to Niall on The Monday-lorians.
• Follow Chris on Twitter.
• Watch Dersu Uzala on YouTube.
• Vladimir Kozlov at The Hollywood Reporter looks at efforts by the Russian government to make Soviet cinema public property, March 2015.
• Alissa Wilkinson at Vox looks at the history and controversies of the Best International Film Oscar, February 2020.
• Philip French at The Guardian marks the release of Dersu Uzala on DVD, January 2012.
• The New York Times reports on the Academy Awards’ relationship with Akira Kurosawa, December 1989.
• Dennis Hunt at The Los Angeles Times reports on Dersu Uzala as one of the first wave of foreign films to premiere on home media, November 1986.
• James Kaelan at Movie Maker looks back over Akira Kurosawa’s experiences making Tora! Tora! Tora!, December 2012.
• Hiroshi Tasogawa talks to Flixist about the troubled production of Tora! Tora! Tora!, February 2020.
• Ben Sachs at The Chicago Reader takes a look at Akira Kurosawa’s Dodes’Ka-den, February 2018.
• Akira Kurosawa talks to The New York Times about his life and career, and in particular his troubles in the early seventies, October 1981.
• Ian Buruma at The New York Times looks back over the later life and career of Akira Kurosawa, October 1989.
• Sato Kimitoshi at Nostalghia.com offers a speculative timeline of Akira Kurosawa’s involvement in Soviet cinema.
• Google offers a brief history of Mosfilm, 2014.
• Susan Chira at The New York Times looks at why Ran was not considered for the Academy Awards, December 1985.
• Jack Matthews at The Los Angeles Times suggests that Ran was “snubbed” by the Japanese film industry, who opted not to submit it, December 1985.
• The New York Times reviews Dersu Uzala, January 1978.
• Richard Schickel discusses Dersu Uzala in The Los Angeles Times, July 2002.
• Tim Ott at Biography looks at the life and success of George Washington Carver, January 2020.
• Stephen Merchant talks to The Irish Independent about casting Christopher Walken in The Outlaws, October 2020.
• Laura Clark at The Smithsonian Magazine talks about the stealing and ransoming of Charlie Chaplin’s body, March 2015.
• Sam Adams at IndieWire looks at the controversy over Netflix’s manipulation of aspect ratios, July 2013.
• Daniel Kreps at Rolling Stone looks at the controversy over the cropping of Seinfeld on Netflix, October 2021.
• Dan Olson at Foldable Ideas discusses crypto-currencies and NFTs, January 2022.
• Vladimir Vasiliev at Web Magazine Wochi Kochi looks back on the production of Dersu Uzala, February 2011.
• Ajay Kamalakaran at Russia Beyond looks at Kurosawa’s connection to Russia, December 2015.
• Amandas Ong at Little White Lies looks back on Kurosawa’s adaptation of The Idiot, March 2016.
• Keiko McDonald and Thomas Rimer discuss The Lower Depths at Criterion, December 2003.
• Daniel Elkind at The Los Angeles Review of Books considers Dersu Uzala, October 2016.
• The 250 discusses The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, October 2020.
• Chris Silver at The Museum of Modern Art reflects on Kurosawa’s life-long obsession with American westerns and John Ford, September 2013.
• Alexey Pavlov at The Calvert Journal looks at the Nanai people in modern Russia, July 2019.
• Donald Richie at Criterion looks at how the shooting script from Dersu Uzala differs from the finished film, July 1995.
• Alexi Duggins at The Guardian looks back on the famous tiger attack during a Siegfried and Roy show, January 2022.
• William Grimes at The New York Times marks the passing of Russian novelist and Dersu Uzala screenwriter Yuri Nagibin, June 1994.
• Richard Eder at The New York Times takes a look at the internaitonal film scene, September 1976.
• Torn Buckley at The New York Times looks at the challenges in bringing international films to American audiences, January 1978.
• Olga V. Solovieva at The Journal of Japanese Cinema reflects on the reading of Dersu Uzala as a meditation on Japanese imperialism, December 2010.
• Follow The 250 on Twitter.
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• Browse listening options at pod.link.

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: adventure, akira kurosawa, chris lavery, civilisation, dersu uzala, foreign film, japan, mosfilm, nature, niall glynn, Russia, soviet cinema, wild, wilderness |