Took time off to watch Dersu Ouzala again after nearly 16 years. There are some films which remain with you for a very long time. They become a part of you. They have touched a chord somewhere that defines your personality and existence. While a majority of films entertain you, these films have a meaning for you. They tell you something about life that keeps touching you, like a warm memory that puts you on a reflective vein, a delightful image that brings a smile or a dialogue that triggers a wave of nostalgia.
How Green was my valley, Dersu Ouzala and Aparajito have been such films for me. Dersu Ouzala is the tale of friendship between two unlikely individuals; the educated, City-bred captain Arseneyiev and the lonely, hunting, forest dwelling, illiterate, Goldie Dersu Ouzala. The Captain and his troop meet this hunting nomad during their surveying expedition of the Ussuri area near Mongolia.
Akira Kurosawa’s portrayal of this relationship (friendship being, one of the most genuine emotions) is fresh and limpid like the dew drop on the forest glade. In danger and adversity Dersu is by the side of the captain putting his life before the captain’s. He embodies all, that belongs to the Natural. Kurosawa’s narrative beautifully films Dersu’s respect for the natural forces (he calls fire, water, wind powerful fellows) his respect for the celestial bodies, the Sun and the Moon, his respect for the other creatures in the forest, his concern for his fellow human beings, his contemptuous dismissal of greed and his lesson on harmonious co-existence with Nature in simple, indelible frames. As his misfired bullet wounds the Tiger, Dersu is down with apprehension that the spirit of the Tiger is going to haunt him. His declining powers take him to the town with the captain, to find a suitable living.
In the end he is a misfit in the town. Although he gets love from the captain’s family, his spirit resents the confined existence. Can you chain the free flowing wind or the running brook? Dersu Ouzala is like the hills, the free flowing wilderness or the sturdy forest oak. Dersu goes back to the forest with a present of a more sophisticated gun from the captain. One day the captain gets a message that Dersu has been killed. Only the captain knows that his friend was killed for a gun and the flippant attitude of the Police about the body, accentuates the tragedy.
Beyond the lovely images and breathtaking photography, the film has a wonderful sense of location; the location of Man vis-à-vis Nature both physically and metaphysically. Please watch it if you haven’t.