Mikhail A. Bulgakov Heart Of a Dog (Sobachie Serdtse) Digitally Remastered Video & Audio with English Subtitles NTSC

Heart of a Dog is a disturbing and wonderful movie. It is an old sicence fiction piece that worked no doubt as an allegory to those who watched it back at the time it first came out. Today the viewer is stimulated to think creatively on many levels, not sure what to think. The enactment of the surreal plot is done so skillfully that I watched it three times in a row over a few weeks. The viewer is drawn to interesting questions: What is a human? How are humans different than animals? How do different social classes treat each other? How did communist society handle class distinctions? How does the history of one social structure effect the personal behavior of people who land in a new social culture? How does the inquisitive nature of a scientist affect the lives of those that he or she experiments on? How well can engineers--social engineers and bioengineers--control the outcomes of their experiments? Serious topics presented with a rowdy dark humor. Heart of a Dog is an old classic that is hard to digest, but you may find it--as I did--to be totally captivating.

VEry bizarre film--need to understand the context of 1920s Soviet Union.

An amazing movie based on the homonymous 1928 satyrical anti-communist novel. Obviously, the novel was banished in the 20s and up into the late1980s. In 1987 due to the thaw it was made into a 2-part tv miniseries, which this film is. The acting is strong and vivid, especially that of the actors who play the distinguished surgeon and the dog he transforms into an almost-man---the former stately, respected, intelligent and witty, the latter a sub-human being all appetite and lacking even the tiniest superego. His metamorphoses from dog to man and back to dog will leave you in awe of his skill. The movie was shot in sepia tones and has been beautifully restored.This film adaptation sticks very closely to the original novel, which I also emphatically recommend you read.

Don't expect Steven Spielberg here. The cinematography is gritty and (to American viewers) stilted – but an authentic portrayal of Russian life and its required recourse to cleverness to register its contempt for the state.

The film is great; this version is not. Stay away from it. The picture quality if awful and the subtitles are worse. "Shut up!" became "Hut up!"

Subtitles could be synched better, but then again it all becomes part of this great story, even for a non russian speaker. It is deep on two to three levels at any given time. Very clever film.

Great movie. Can watch it many times.

Excellent, cynical look at Soviet culture during the NEP period.