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Il deserto dei Tartari (1976)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
29 October 1976 (Italy) morePlot:
As his first assignment, lieutenant Drogo is sent to an isolated fortress on the borders of a desert and of a range of high mountains... more | add synopsisPlot Keywords:
Awards:
4 wins moreUser Comments:
Imaginary enemies moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Vittorio Gassman | ... | Filimore | |
| Giuliano Gemma | ... | Mattis | |
| Helmut Griem | ... | Lieutenant Simeon | |
| Philippe Noiret | ... | General | |
| Jacques Perrin | ... | Drogo | |
| Francisco Rabal | ... | Tronk | |
| Fernando Rey | ... | Nathanson | |
| Laurent Terzieff | ... | Amerling | |
| Jean-Louis Trintignant | ... | Le médecin-major Rovin | |
| Max von Sydow | ... | Hortiz | |
| Shaban Golchin Honaz | ... | Soldat Lazare | |
| Giuseppe Pambieri | ... | Lieutenant Rathenau | |
| Bryan Rostron | |||
| Kamran Nozad | ... | Capitaine Sern | |
| Manfred Freyberger | ... | Caporal Montagne |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Die Tartarenwüste (West Germany)Le désert des Tartares (France)
Le desert des Tartars
The Desert of the Tartars
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Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
140 min | France:138 minLanguage:
ItalianColor:
Color (Eastmancolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 moreSound Mix:
MonoFun Stuff
Quotes:
Drogo: I was sent here by mistake.Le médecin-major Rovin: Here or elsewhere, we're all somewhere by mistake.
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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Il deserto dei Tartari (1976)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
|---|---|
| Engrossing or Boring as Hell SPOILER ALERT | jrcham94 |
| The DVD (please help) | den_dennis |
| DVD? | henrymale |
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Very little happens in Valerio Zurlini's The Desert of the Tartars two-and-a-half hours, which is exactly the point, as Jacques Perrin's initially ambitious young officer is posted to a magnificent desert fort overlooking the spectacular ruins of an ancient city on a non-existent border where soldiers wait endlessly for a possibly imagined enemy to give a sense of focus and purpose to their lives. Yet the Tartars remain the stuff of rumours and legends, the visually striking fort (Arge-E-Bam in Iran) a quietly malignant place, its very walls infested with an unidentifiable disease that slowly destroys its inhabitants. Yes, we're in allegory territory here, with the human condition distilled down to waiting and planning for a moment that may never happen, with all the malaise that entails, and it's a film you're either going to be drawn into or find two-and-a-half hours of pure tedium. One of the few films to show how cold and inhospitable the desert can be, there are vague similarities to the considerably less successful Fort Saganne in the way it undermines the expectations of a Beau Geste-like adventure in favour of the malaise and unrealised expectation that was really the stuff of a career-killing desert posting. With an impressively varied international cast Max Von Sydow, Phillipe Noiret, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Helmut Griem and Fernando Rey among them and boasting fine cinematography by Luciano Tovoli, it's not for all tastes but it certainly casts a spell on those it ensnares.