By WILLIAM J. WRIGHT
Deaf Crocodile Films, in association with distributor Seagull Films, has just announced that they are bringing the 1956 Russian fantasy film, ILYA MUROMETS, to Blu-ray this month. Released in a radically re-edited form as THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON in 1963 by Roger Corman, the Soviet-era medieval epic by director Aleksandr Ptushko is an FX-filled extravaganza based on the legend of the eponymous Russian folk hero. To be released through partner label OCN-Vinegar Syndrome, the disc will feature an all-new commentary track by film historian, comic book artist, and author Stephen R. Bissette (Swamp Thing), a reprint of film scholar Alan Upchurch’s pioneering essay on Aleksandr Ptushko from Video Watchdog, and Ptushko’s essay on the making of the film.
ILYA MUROMETS stars Boris Andreyev as Ilya, the legendary warrior of Kyivan Rus’ epic poems, in his long battle with the invading Tugars who kidnap his wife and turn his son against him. Along the way, he faces an array of dangers that includes everything from wind demons to dragons. Hailed for its groundbreaking special effects, ILYA MUROMETS was one of many Cold War fantasy films that earned Ptushko the reputation of the Soviet Union’s answer to Walt Disney, Ray Harryhausen, and Mario Bava.
Restored in 4K by Moscow’s Mosfilm Studio, utilizing the original 35mm camera negative this release marks the film’s first-ever official U.S. release on Blu-ray in its original, uncut form.
“On one level, ILYA MUROMETS is a pure fantasy, one of Ptushko’s greatest — but even a fantasy can have political implications,” says Dennis Bartok, Deaf Crocodile’s Co-Founder and Head of Distribution & Acquisitions. “Although ILYA MUROMETS was made in 1956 at the height of the Cold War and was set in a mythical landscape nearly a thousand years earlier, it has unmistakable parallels to today’s world and the war in the Ukraine. Ilya was a legendary hero of the Kyivan Rus’ which encompassed modern Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus in the 9th to 13th centuries. That idea of somehow returning to a mythical ‘united Rus’’ has been used as a tragic justification for the war today — and of course, when ILYA MUROMETS was made in 1956, it would have been seen as a call for a united Soviet Union at the time.”
“Imagine being given an unlimited budget and no time constraints to make the ultimate fantasy epic in 1956… that’s ILYA MUROMETS”, adds Deaf Crocodile Co-Founder and Head of Post-Production & Restoration Craig Rogers. “With over 100,000 extras, over 10,000 horses, and a three-headed dragon that breathes real fire!”
Following its May disc release, ILYA MUROMETS will be available for digital streaming through Grasshopper Films.
