I myself have three editions of the movie – by Mosfilm, by Russian Cinema Council and this one by Criterion. First of all i must say that this is exactly one of those rare cases when “longer” doesn`t mean “better”. It was not strict soviet censors who cut the movie, it was Tarkovsky himself who cut it according to his own decision and he strongly recommended watching the theater version as you may see from the interviews he gave. I have a great respect for people in Criterion for all their fantastic work they do restoring movies but this copy of the film that was transferred into digital form was also very far from perfection so i think that one should wait untill they re release the movie in blu ray or in dvd using other copy of the original.
Is this edition worth buying? over 3 years ago
I myself have three editions of the movie – by Mosfilm, by Russian Cinema Council and this one by Criterion. First of all i must say that this is exactly one of those rare cases when “longer” doesn`t mean “better”. It was not strict soviet censors who cut the movie, it was Tarkovsky himself who cut it according to his own decision and he strongly recommended watching the theater version as you may see from the interviews he gave. I have a great respect for people in Criterion for all their fantastic work they do restoring movies but this copy of the film that was transferred into digital form was also very far from perfection so i think that one should wait untill they re release the movie in blu ray or in dvd using other copy of the original.
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