Dorathen Better Late Then Never

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

snowpixie-45563 This movie is a fairy tale. And like all classic fairy tales - it is grim, it is scary, and it teaches us about ourselves. It's a dark mirror, reflecting human nature, our relationship with power - and our desire for things to remain familiar, stable - the same, no matter what the cost. This movie is a grotesque view of a society - each human society. It is about a slave - and a dragon - in each and every one of us. In recent years fairy tales became mass produced sugar syrup for mass consumption, devoid of their original intent of being the lessons in life itself. We forget that Cinderella is not about pretty dresses, and Mermaid - is not about singing crabs. That the original folk tales are dark and scary - precisely because life is like that. "To kill a dragon" takes a fairy tale to it's roots - dark as human nature can be, exposing the scary side of humanity, so we can become better as a result.

Vadim Berman "Ubit' drakona" is the last (up to date) movie made by Zakharov, blending modern realities and fairy-tale motives into a thought-provoking cinematic masterpiece. Unfortunately, most of Zakharov's movies are not easy to understand by those without the ex-USSR background. "Ubit' drakona", rooted in universal motives and using imagery familiar to the Western public, seems to be an exception. The nuances and the gentle humour of the late Soviet actors will probably be somewhat lost to the Western viewer, but much will be still understood.The movie delves deep into the psychology of the tyranny and oppression, and into the psychology of the oppressed. "I started to envy the slaves.", says Lancelot, "They know everything in advance. They have solid convictions; maybe, because they have no choice?" This message about the burden of freedom is especially powerful. Everything is simple in the first part - a cruel tyrant, people who are afraid of him, trying to steer clear of trouble. The second part, however, is more important. It shows that the dragon inside one's mind might be more powerful than the physical dragon. The ending is simply magical.It takes the visionary genius of Schwartz, who wrote the original play at the same time when Orwell wrote "1984", and the expressive genius of Zakharov, to predict the process that so many people went through decades later, and will keep going through as becoming free people is not the same as getting rid of a tyrant. (Lars von Trier's "Manderlay" comes to mind.) I wish Hollywood adapted this. The result probably won't live up to the original, but this message must be heard.

Delilah A brilliant movie, like most of Russian's movies. Based on the play "Kill the Dragon", by Evgeni Schwartz, it is mostly like theater, with strong accent on the characters, the plot, the acting.Director has not waisted his time and talent on special effects and such a marginal things. "Ubit drakona" is a beautiful story about freedom, and human disability to live freely; about beauty, nobility, and loneliness of beautiful and noble creatures in the world. It is done in the best manner of Russian literature, with strong influence of novels of Dostoevski, with plenty of dialogs freedom, love, violence, but, also, with brilliantly done scenes of duels, balls, and dialogs in the classical manner of Shakespeare.

sunlion This film is not to be taken as just a gruesome fairy tale. It`s a sharp and biting glance of an effect of power on people. It follows how power corrupts people and especially highlights and shames those who quietly succumbs to tyrany just for the dear piece even if it means betraying your loved ones and everyone around. The blazing line that goes through film -"kill the dragon and you become the next dragon". Is it possible not to fall prey for a comfort of being a tyrant, not to become another dragon ? Wondering knight Lancelot has to find that out for himself.//--POSSIBLE SPOILERS--------// One shot from the film that I would like to mention especially - when the death of Dragon is pronounced to people and the voice shout from the city wall - "people, now you have your freedom !", for the minute crowd stands numb, than the voices raise in jubilation, but the camera turns and shows a bunch of scrawny mails, one of them suddenly yells "freedom!", turns over the nearby apple stand, grabs the passing by woman and tries to drag her in an ally.No rosy happy end here. Where freedom turns into anarchy ? What to do about it ? Instate another tyrany and become another Dragon ? Recommended to anyone who thinks that things are easy - just take the sword and slash something. This will make you think again.