“Ilya Muromets (The Sword & The Dragon)” (1956) on 4K restoration Blu-ray uncut for the first time in the United States.

Aleksandr Ptushko’s visually stunning FX-filled epic has hit the streets and is now available for your theater library.

Deaf Crocodile Films, in association with distribution partner Seagull Films, released the 4K restoration on Blu-ray of famed fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko.

Produced in 1956, this Russian film with English subtitles is visually stunning. The medieval epic was initially released and heavily edited with the title The Sword & the Dragon.

Now, Ilya Muromets (The Sword & The Dragon) through partner label OCN-Vinegar Syndrome. The Blu-ray edition of Ilya Muromets is fully restored to its original Russian release. The package also contains a new commentary track by comics artist (Swamp Thing), film historian and author Stephen R. Bissette and a reprint of film scholar Alan Upchurch’s pioneering essay on Aleksandr Ptushko from Video Watchdog magazine, plus Ptushko’s own essay on the making of Ilya Muromets. 

Mosfilm studio recently restored Ilya Muromets in 4K using the original 35mm camera negative. Ptushko’s movie became available for digital streaming after its Blu-ray release through Deaf Crocodile’s partner label, Grasshopper Films.

Ilya Muromets runs 87 minutes, which keeps the drama moving without unnecessarily long pans and dramatic moments. The legendary fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko’s sweeping, visual FX-filled epic is impressive as a 1956 production. 

“On one level, Ilya Muromets is a pure fantasy, one of Ptushko’s greatest — but even a fantasy can have political implications,” says Dennis Bartok, Deaf Crocodile’s Co-Founder and Head of Distribution & Acquisitions. “Although Ilya Muromets was made in 1956 at the height of the Cold War and was set in a mythical landscape nearly a thousand years earlier, it has unmistakable parallels to today’s world and the war in Ukraine. Ilya was a legendary Kyivan Rus hero, encompassing modern Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus in the 9th to 13th centuries. That idea of somehow returning to a mythical “united Rus'” has been used as a tragic justification for the war today — and of course, when Ilya Muromets was made in 1956, it would have been seen as a call for a united Soviet Union at the time.”

“Imagine being given an unlimited budget and no time constraints to make the ultimate fantasy epic in 1956… that’s Ilya Muromets”, added Deaf Crocodile Co-Founder and Head of Post-Production & Restoration Craig Rogers. “With over 100,000 extras, over 10,000 horses, and a three-headed dragon that breathes real fire!”

Though I have seen none of Ptushko’s production before, some film fans believe this is one of his most enchanting achievements. The movie has stunning Cinemascope as a ballad of heroic medieval knights with ruthless Tugar invaders.

The special effects include wind demons and three-headed fire-breathing dragons, which are remarkable for 1956. The film stars Boris Andreyev as the bogatyr, Russian for a warrior, Ilya, a mythic figure in the Kyivan Rus’ culture that pre-dated modern Ukraine and Russia. Kyivan Rus’ was a shapeless federation in Eastern Europe and Northern Europe from 880 to the beginning of the 13th century. Much of the film’s action is set in Kyiv, and Ilya’s relics are held today in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery. 

Based on a series of famous byliny, Russian for oral epics, the film follows Ilya as he wages a decades-long battle against the Tugars. The Tugars threaten his homeland, kidnap his wife and raise his son to fight against him. The movie is worth watching because of its dynamic acting, brilliant costumes, cinematography and vast panorama shots. 

Ptushko began his career in the 1930s and became a combination of Walt Disney, Ray Harryhausen, who pioneered stop-motion animated effects, and Mario Bava, an Italian filmmaker known for his horror movies. Ptushko stands among the best for his dazzling, bejeweled fantasies, including The Stone Flower, Sadko, Sampo and Ruslan & Ludmila. 

They released the first Cinemascope film produced in the Soviet Union, Ilya Muromets, in a truncated, dubbed version in the U.S. at the height of the Cold War as The Sword & The Dragon, downplaying the epic poetry and lyricism of the original. 

Thanks to the progression of technology, Deaf Crocodile and Seagull Films, this epic movie arrives fully restored in 4K for its first-ever official U.S. release on Blu-ray in its original Russian with English subtitles.