Rating: 
Summary: For the Ages
Review: Stalin may have wanted an ode to collective agriculture; what he got instead was a hymnal to mother nature and the toiling offspring who dwell in her bosom. Those opening shots of pulsating fields waving in the wind have no equal for sheer evocative power. Earth is revealed at once as a living, breathing being and bountiful provider. Flower, fruit, decay, renewal -- nature's timeless cycle. The soundless imagery is at times so wonderfully lyrical that contemporary viewers may be led to recognize how much has been lost to the technology-driven cinema of today. Even the occasional plot crudities are rescued by a style that is both brilliant and unerringly pictorial. Close-ups of weather-worn peasants, a lone kulak and oxen beneath an immense sky, great rolling plains and far horizons of the Ukrainian breadbasket -- this is the sheer lyrical sweep of the Dovchenko masterpiece, a montage that transcends all obstacles, real and man-made. Not even the estimable John Ford frames primitive elements as grandly as this. There are flaws. Too many rushing crowd scenes appear without purpose, except to mimic Eisenstein's "march of history", while the propaganda thread at times blends uneasily with the lyrical. Still and all, Dovchenko pulls off the theme of new beginning more seamlessly than might be expected. Far from being a mere relic of the silent era, or an ode to Stalinist collectivism, Earth remains an enduring testament to the power of cinema as sheer visual poetry.
Rating: 
Summary: About the Image DVD version of EARTH
Review: The Image DVD version of the 1930 Russian silent film EARTH has a disappointing video transfer. It is made from the same video source that was used for Kino's VHS tape version released in 1991 ... . The image is replete with scratches, dirt, and looks out of focus (which often indicates duplication from another source). Fortunately, the film's artistic audacity -- its striking compositions and innovative editing -- makes it watchable despite of the poor video quality. The DVD also includes a still-frame reconstruction of Sergei Eisenstein's 1937 lost film BEZHIN MEADOW, a film about an allegorical struggle between the "old" and the "young". The video quality is much better here, but still isn't as sharp and clean as the edition included in Criterion's EISENSTEIN: THE SOUND YEARS DVD set. (The Criterion disc even includes a few extras such as production photos and articles on BEZHIN MEADOW, while the Image disc has none.) Image's EARTH (and Criterion's EISENSTEIN: THE SOUND YEARS, for that matter) is an all-region DVD.
Rating:
Summary: About the Image DVD version of EARTH
Review: The Image DVD version of the 1930 Russian silent film EARTH has a disappointing video transfer. It is made from the same video source that was used for Kino's VHS tape version released in 1991 ... . The image is replete with scratches, dirt, and looks out of focus (which often indicates duplication from another source). Fortunately, the film's artistic audacity -- its striking compositions and innovative editing -- makes it watchable despite of the poor video quality. The DVD also includes a still-frame reconstruction of Sergei Eisenstein's 1937 lost film BEZHIN MEADOW, a film about an allegorical struggle between the "old" and the "young". The video quality is much better here, but still isn't as sharp and clean as the edition included in Criterion's EISENSTEIN: THE SOUND YEARS DVD set. (The Criterion disc even includes a few extras such as production photos and articles on BEZHIN MEADOW, while the Image disc has none.) Image's EARTH (and Criterion's EISENSTEIN: THE SOUND YEARS, for that matter) is an all-region DVD.
Rating:
Summary: one of the immortal masterpieces of art
Review: This film is a powerfully poetic work about the Ukranian peasants, however, unlike the specificity of the subject the film reflects all-time, living values of the man on Earth, his spiritual world and internal sufferings. A must for any cultured person.
Rating:
Summary: It's my Earth and I won't give it up!
Review: This film is in black and white. Some times the scenes look a little faded. Who knows if this was done on purpose? This is one of the last silent films of the era. The music is well coordinated with the scenes. The film is 88 minutes long. Most of the time it is images or dancing. Remove the images and dancing and you have about 20 minutes. There is a written narration at the beginning of the movie to tell you of the author and purpose of the movie. The English subtitles cover only one fourth of the dialog. You have to be a fast reader to finish the tittle before the next scene. An alternate tittle could be " Who killed Basil?" And why? This is the story of a conflict between the collective and the individual owned farms. The technologies (tractors and aeroplanes) are to represent the collective. Horses and sweat are to represent the farm owners. This is played out with close ups of the faces of the farmers and the farm animals. An earlier reviewer missed the mark on one of the things that make this film controversial. He tried to relate this film to [Triumph of the Will (1934) - English subtitles ASIN: 6303593666]. The irony is that in 1930 the Soviet Communist League asked Ukrainian director Dovzhenko to make a propaganda picture. He was to dramatize the need for landowners to give up their properties in order to create collective farms. However they got more than they bargained for. Hitler wanted Leni Riefenstahl to make [The Olympiad: Part 1 (1936) - English subtitles ASIN: 6303695795] This was to emphasize Aryan superiority. The film turned out to be a work of art and if anybody benefited from it that was the black American runner Jesse Owens. "Earth" turned out to be a work of art and if it did anything, it help solidify the feelings of the people that farm ownership has its merit.
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