Ilya Muromets/The Sword and the Dragon - 1956

Absolute beyond the beyond Russian mythic batshittery - operatic, dreamlike, psychedelic, ridiculous, grandiose, poetic, violent, magical, gorgeous, incredible special and in-camera effects, exquisite 3-strip Technicoloresque palette with costumes, sets and scale -100,000 extras! – as only the state-supported coffers of Mosfilm could provide.

 

Will likely only increase your contempt for – and refusal to be swayed by – CGI or shooting on video at all, for that matter.

Writer/director Alexandr Ptushko did it all with puppets, film magic, lighting and complete and utter belief in his complete and utterly deranged mission. Weirdly compelling and irresistable, like being carried along in someone else's dreams. The crude special effects prove convincing, and the scenes using those 100,000 extras raise the art of the possible to the celestial. Those scenes prove the most dreamlike, immersive and incredible, but...

Cultural Note: This is a Rus-adoring product of the barely post-Stalinist Soviet Union. So the heroes and heroines are enormous strapping bob-nosed, blue-eyed Aryans and the invaders they battle are demonic semi-humans, all small and bandy-legged and dark. The worst villain, the lying, cringing, back-stabbing, greedy traitor, has a gigantic fake nose - the only fake-seeming effect in this wonderhouse - walks stooped over and constantly rubs his hands together while whining and complaining: Shylock - pure anti-Semitic caricature and a pure portrait of this picture's time and place.