Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Mother Blu-ray Movie Review

An interesting introduction to the works of Vsevolod Pudovkin

Mother is the first feature in the collection. The 1926 drama explores a storyline centered around a turbulent workers strike. The film is an adaptation of the novel by Maxim Gorky and delves into history with a firm grip. The story explores the difficulties of workers in Russia amid the times. Considered an important work of Russian cinema, cinephiles can once more discover this classic slice of foreign cinema.

Mother of Russia

Featuring a stirring lead performance by Vera Baranovskaya as the mother in the story, Pelageya Nilovna Vlasova, the feature-film stirs up emotions that make one contemplate industrialization. Directed by Pudovkin with an experimental style for 1926, the film pushes the boundaries of early Soviet cinema. The filmmaking is uniquely distinctive for an early 1920's production and is worth consideration when exploring the history of Russian cinema.

Mother Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Bolshevik Trilogy: Three Films by Vsevolod Pudovkin is an expansive collection containing three (surprisingly different) presentations. Each of the three films is presented with a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high-definition presentation in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (full frame). The presentation for Mother is detailed below:

The set kicks things off an a surprisingly underwhelming note. The transfer for Mother is mediocre in virtually every sense of the word. The scan has an abundance of dirt and debris all over the print. The scan has countless scratches across the cinematography. There are so many shots which are obviously overblown with poor white reproduction, contrast flickering, and weak black levels. The black levels look consistently gray. There is simply an abundance of print damage. Even so, Mother does has the clarity one might expect and hope for on a high-definition presentation (and the image isn't soft as much as it simply mediocre in virtually every other area).

Mother Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Each feature in the Bolshevik Trilogy: Three Films by Vsevolod Pudovkin collection is presented with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. The audio quality is generally favorable throughout all three films but there are some variances between the audio tracks and their respective qualities.

Mother has strong audio clarity overall with an impressive sounding piano score. The music truly shines and the audio track outshines the video-transfer. The track is effective and is surprising on-point given the production year.

Please Note: Optional English subtitles are included for the intertitles.

Mother Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Audio Commentary on Mother by Russian film historian Peter Bagrov

Mother Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mother is an interesting beginning to The Bolshevik Trilogy. The film has a lot of ideas at play and is an important work of Russian cinema. The transfer is unfortunately underwhelming. However, the release has impressive audio. Worth a watch.