Dikoe pole (2008) User Reviews

Diluted isn't always a bad thing.

[very_evil_me · 7/10 · 13 July 2009]

A doctor in the middle of barely anywhere is made to treat several strange ailments with barely any medicine.

Wild Field is so different to Hollywood films. Though really its not, it's just the bare bones of one. It's been starved of drama and clichés, there's no super-happy ending and an interesting lack of strong plotting. Films like this is going to take some getting used for me, but I am open to them.

It is watered down Hollywood, but Hollywood has been coming across too strong anyway. I really liked the humour that resulted, its was natural, and light. It didn't have me in stitches, but what's wrong with pleasant chuckles?

The film deals with so many key aspects of human nature, ethics, isolation, loneliness, faith, and dependency, is really human. It doesn't feel contrived like a blockbuster, or boring like a documentary, its not dramatic like a drama or as slow as some indie. It finds itself a nice middleground between them all.

Wild Field lacks a wow factor, it instead was soft and pleasant and I enjoyed it.

John Ford meets Anton Chekhov...

[kalmoth · 10/10 · 5 July 2009]

A sparse, spare, robust, vibrant movie, shot in the middle of nowhere and channeling both the great tradition of Westerns (think John Ford or maybe even Sergio Leone) and the Russian literary legacy of Anton Chekhov (the Russian Imperial doctor who wrote funny stories and treated ex-prisoners dying from TB). The plot is very simple - a young doctor is sent out to the boonies, he helps the local folks when stuff happens to them, and then, when stuff happens to him, the local folks help him (or at least try to). It's not about the plot or even the dialog though (although the latter is occasionally bitingly funny). It's about the basic truths shared at all levels of human existence and regarding life, death, loyalty, betrayal, excessive drinking, and insufficiency of medical supplies.

A few factoids regarding the film. The screenplay predates the movie by almost 20 years. Neither of the script writers lived to see the movie. The director is the grandson of Mikhail Kalatozov, who directed The Cranes are Flying back in the 50s, which, if I remember correctly, was the first Russian movie to win the Palm d'Or at the Cannes film festival. Well, inasmuch as this reviewer is concerned, the grandfather would be proud of the grandson. The sad part is, the movie is considered cursed because of the early deaths of the writers and now of Mikhail Kalatozishvili, the director, as well.

lovely movie

[leotagore · 10/10 · 13 September 2014]

wast expanse of Russian land; how Russian people love to live life which is mostly solitary and with limited resources .How the doctor a young man utilizes everything and anything which is at his disposal.looks a little far-fetched but it reminds me of my father who is a vet.how he used to work a couple of decades ago. liked every character.Good acting without any pretensions. especially the doctor and the police man. a true taste of grass root Russian life.the last tragicomic scene,the superintendent cracking his own windshield,the young girl flirting with doctor.And the boy who killed the armed intruder teasing the police man and many more which cling to you after the movie.and above all the vastness of the steppe.