The Sword and the Dragon (1956)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

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 They're out of date now, but Cecil B. DeMille couldn't have done better.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.

Having really enjoyed all of what I've seen of Alexandr Ptushko's films so far(my favourites being Stone Flower and The Tale of Tsar Sultan), I knew that I would want to see Ilya Muromets, or The Epic Hero and the Beast/Sword and the Dragon. And this was despite the fact that it got dubbed and the MST3K treatment. If you saw the dubbed version, like with Sadko(The Magic Voyages of Sinbad) and Sampo(The Day the Earth Froze)- though not as badly affected- you'd think that Ilya Muromets was cheesy, over-the-top and senseless. But actually in my opinion, like with those other two films, if seen in its Russian version it is a beautiful and fun fantasy film that is easy to see why the gushing reviewers were captivated by it so much in childhood. I can understand why people will find that the actors over-act, I consider the acting quite noble and in keeping with the film's style and that the dub makes things too overly-broad. In terms of the film's titles also, the most fitting is the Russian one Ilya Muromets, the English ones are rather misleading in comparison. Even today Ilya Muromets looks really good, the cinematography is sweeping and the costumes and sets are gorgeous and colourful to watch. The special effects to me hold up pretty well, some better than others(the wind demon for example is much better designed than the dragon), with a really endearing charm to them. The music score is heroic and rousing, lyrical and beautiful, not once does it jar with any scene. The story is enthralling, there is a real sense of adventure that is sometimes wonderfully surreal but always thrilling yet there is a strong Russian folk-tale feel about it. Plus unlike its dub it's actually coherent. Ptusko does a splendid job directing, he never allows the film to be dull and just looking at it alone you can tell it's a Ptushko film. In conclusion, a very good and beautiful film and a fantasy unlike any other. While it is the least badly affected of the Ptushko films dubbed and MST3K-treated, it is deserving of a much better chance, deservedly the dubs are torn to shreds but it's not always remembered that the original Russian versions are really good films. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I heartily agree, it was always a childhood favorite. The music is haunting and the scenery is beautiful. I have memorized most of the lines and how many times have I wished for Ilya's magic cloth? O for a steed like Chesnut Grey! The special effects are precious, only those of us you truly enjoy 50's sci fi movies can appreciate the dragon, the wind demon and the forest creatures during the weaving scene.I have tried to find an uncut version of this film because its hard edit indicate that there may be missing scenes. The Russians really know how to stage an epic! See it if you can.

While this film doesn't look as impressive today as it once did, you have to remember that it debuted here in 1956, when the big "epic" movie was DeMille's "The Ten Commandments," and this film has several things in common with it. This was a very, VERY big picture for 1956 Russia, and while technically there's no comparison with DeMille's picture, it has a kind of charming innocence that DeMille's definitely does not. The dated, over-the-top acting styles are common to both pictures, and while it sort of works for the Russian picture, it really doesn't for "Commandments," and was the one thing that always annoyed me about that picture (and pretty much all of DeMille's talkies, for that matter). I enjoyed the villains much more in "Sword and the Dragon," and the human pyramid scene is still astounding, as is the scene near the end where the Russian spearmen pincushion the Mongol chief and raise him, screaming and still impaled on their spears, above their heads; it was quite gruesome for 1956, and is still remembered by people who haven't seen the film for 20 years or more. Granted, some of the film is laughable--the simpering, pigtailed blonde girlfriend is a bit much--and some of the effects are pretty cheesy, but overall I still think it's an impressive accomplishment. The Russians put a lot of money into this movie, and for the most part it shows. The film is a bit lumbering, but not much more so than "The Ten Commandments," which is more highly regarded, and not entirely justifiably.Overall, this is a somewhat goofy, charmingly dated but eminently watchable spectacle with some truly memorable scenes, so slip it in the VCR, pop open a beer, get some popcorn and see what passed for state-of-the-art cinema in 1956 Russia.