What do you think? This film is pretty much a Western in another guise, not a "shoot-em-up" Western, but more in the tradition of Karl May's Winnetou and James Fennimore Coooper's Leatherstocking novels.
shareI don't think so. I can see why someone would make the comparison, but Western Westerns (as in: made in the West, not East), are still far too action-oriented, like "Last of the Mohicans"--I mean, did whatsisname ever go anywhere without running?
Also, Western films lack the contemplative quality of "Dersu Uzala". Even when they are thought-provoking, it usually involves some kind of conflict or argument. The only American film I can think of that even approaches the "feel" of "Dersu" is "Jeremiah Johnson", and that still has violence and revenge in it.
She deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die.
You're right. Perhaps it wasn't like an American Western, at least not the ones made before 1970, when Hollywood films began to reappraise the American Indian culture in a positive light. However, it did seem to me similar in spirit to the Western novels of the German writer Karl May, especially his stories of the Indian Winnetou and his white friend Old Shatterhand, who narrates in the first person, like Arseniev in the movie. Since the film was made in the U.S.S.R., call it Karl May by way of Karl Marx if you like.
shareThe actual synopsis, 'young(ish) European officer leading his men in a remote part of his country's Empire meets and is helped by simple-but-wise native tracker whose knowledge of nature and homespun philosophy enriches his understanding' could have come straight out of a story by Kipling. The film just has all the sensibility that Kipling lacked.
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