Product: My Name Is Ivan [VHS] (1963)
Rating: 4.0
Powerful and dramatic, but short of masterpiece status
Being Tarkovsky's first feature-length film, this is his least developed and polished in terms of style. In most ways this is also his most conventional work, but that is not surprising since he considered it a 'proving ground' for his future career. Additionally, he took this film over from another director during production (incidentally, by authoritative accounts "Ivan's Childhood" is the more appropriate title translation). It is perhaps his one film that cannot be considered a masterpiece, simply because from an overall aesthetic standpoint it does not quite measure up to the later films. However, this is undoubtedly the most accessible film of a famously 'inaccessible' artist, and the roots of the Tarkovskian world undeniably course through it, so it remains a serious and important work. In terms of the VHS transfer, just hope for a DVD version to arrive.