Hard to Be a God : Arrow Video

[dvdmike]

NEW UK TITLE ANNOUNCEMENT: HARD TO BE A GOD BLU-RAY / DVD
Visually dazzling Russian sci-fi epic set on a terrifyingly medieval planet
Pre-order on Blu-ray here: http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/shop/ind...product_id=573
Pre-order on DVD here: http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/shop/ind...product_id=574
Release Date: 7th September 2015
Region: Free
A group of scientists visits the distant planet Arkanar, and discovers a society still trapped in its own medieval era. Unable to interfere with the course of its history, they can only watch in mounting horror as all sparks of intelligent and independent thought are mercilessly snuffed out by Arkanar’s cruel rulers. Will they remain enmired in their squalid existence for ever, or can the visitors subtly nudge the more open-minded in the right direction? Truly, it’s hard to be a god.
Legendary Russian sci-fi authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (whose Roadside Picnic was filmed as Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky) wrote the source novel, and adapting it was director Aleksei German’s dream project for decades. It would take six years of shooting, a further six of post-production and a posthumous premiere before his masterpiece was finally unveiled.
But masterpiece it is: a visually astonishing, almost tactile recreation of an unnervingly recognisable alternative universe, drenched in blood, mud and the tears of the oppressed.

[ravenus]

^Sorry to be THAT guy, but as the cover says this is an Arrow Academy release, a different sub-label than Arrow Video.

[GorillaGuy]

Definitely gonna have to import this

[Vakulinchuk]

I love you, Arrow.

[Yami]

Really looking forward to this. I wonder if the behind the scenes documentary is exclusive to the US Kino release or if Arrow will include it as well?

[JimDiGriz]

This one, unlike all those new Arrow releases, sounds interesting.

[chip75]

Hard to be a God - Official Trailer - YouTube

Hard to Be a God (2014) Trailer #2, english subtitles - YouTube

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by JimDiGriz

This one, unlike all those new Arrow releases, sounds interesting.

Same. More Russian sci-fi is never a bad thing.

[lolwut]

Saw the trailer recently. Looks great visually, blind buy for me.

[Todd Tomorrow]

This film is for people who think Bela Tarr is too fast moving and exciting. For three hours it is virtually without plot or drama and it has very little to do with the science fiction novel it is based on. I haven't read the novel, but I've seen the 80s film which is supposed to be reasonably faithful and I'm not sure why the director decided to just throw it out. The medieval world depicted is impressive, but that alone can't sustain a film for long.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by Todd Tomorrow

I haven't read the novel, but I've seen the 80s film which is supposed to be reasonably faithful and I'm not sure why the director decided to just throw it out.

I haven't read it either but the authors didn't like the 80s film at all and actually wanted German to direct an adaptation (alas both died prior to its release).

[Todd Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by Yami

I haven't read it either but the authors didn't like the 80s film at all and actually wanted German to direct an adaptation (alas both died prior to its release).

Strugatsky simply didn't like it because he was very particular that a Russian director should make it (not necessarily German) and not Peter Fleischman who was German.The 89 film sticks far closer to the novel than this, which barely has anything to do with it and the writer wasn't around anymore to give his opinion on it. In the end I don't care. The 89 film wasn't that great, but at least it made sense and followed the novel. This is just three hours of unrelieved chaos and boredom. It was among the films with the most walk outs during a screening I've ever attended. Tarovsky it ain't.

[Anthony Thorne]

I've never seen it and I'm curious. Here is Glenn Kenny's four-star rave at the Ebert site. His very funny opening sentence would make a great blurb for the Arrow cover.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hard-to-be-a-god-2015

[tenia]

Originally Posted by Anthony Thorne

I've never seen it and I'm curious. Here is Glenn Kenny's four-star rave at the Ebert site. His very funny opening sentence would make a great blurb for the Arrow cover.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hard-to-be-a-god-2015

Thanks for the link, it was a fantastic read indeed !

[Vakulinchuk]

I've read the novel, and I'll read it again this summer to refresh it before seeing German's movie.

I think German didn't want to make a prosaic, didactic adaptation. I haven't seen Fleischman but since the novel is arguably one of the three most known soviet sci-fi novels, I guess German probably didn't feel the necessity to retell a very known story, but rather to give a perspective on it. That's probably the reason why the movie had a different title in the beginning (see also: Svankmajer's Něco z Alenky). That would also make sense in the context of the movie's very long and troubled production.

Anyway, the sci-fi premise is actually rather blunt, so it can be filmed as a Star Trek episode, I sure hope German's film's qualities do not rest in it.

[Nielsb90]

Very, very interested in this, having read the book.

[Judex]

For those who are in two minds whether to get this or not. It's currently streaming on NetflixUS.

[Sky_Captain]

**rubs hands together**

[Dougling]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

We're not including it because it's not really a "behind the scenes documentary" - it's a long, rather rambling interview with Aleksei German with very little actual on-set footage. And because there'll be a substantial interview with him in the booklet that covers identical ground but with much more footnoting and contextualising for non-Russians, as well as a massive gallery of behind-the-scenes stills, it felt a bit redundant to me. With an extras budget as (understandably) tight as mine on this project, I really have to justify every acquisition.

On the other hand, I'm delighted to confirm that the thing that I actually did acquire, Daniel Bird's video essay History of the Arkanar Massacre, is everything that I could possibly have hoped for, and just what a project like this needed. I'm assuming - most likely accurately - that the typical purchaser of this will have very adventurous film tastes but most likely will know little or nothing about Aleksei German, the Strugatsky novel or the project's tortuous gestation (German first tried to get it off the ground way back in 1967), and Daniel admirably fills in all those gaps and quite a few more. And his expert knowledge of Andrzej Żuławski's films leads to a digression about On the Silver Globe, which is probably the only other film that's even remotely similar to Hard to Be a God.

Your second paragraph just made me very excited. My girlfriend will not be impressed when I do "nothing" with my day off once this arrives.

[Yami]

Sounds good, Michael! I look forward to it!

Interesting to see On the Silver Glove get a mention. I have suggested to Arrow before that they pick up Zulawski's films for a UK release. Now that they've expanded to the US, I'd love to see them partner with Mondo to get them out a bit quicker than Mondo are managing to do alone.