RUR: The Robots of Jim Ripl (Gibel Sensatsii)

Very good science fiction propaganda film. Good story line that is heavy handed toward the Marxist ideal at times. A glimpse into the future thought of Soviet Russia after the revolution. Despite the title there is little to connect this with the original R.U.R. play.

A beautifully photographed, fascinating piece of history. Highly recommended for robot aficionados, fans of unique historical science fiction and/or fans of nifty scifi set-pieces, props, and related special effects, those interested in propaganda film... As you can see, this movie could appeal to almost any serious fan of cinema. I've never seen anything quite like it.Note that as of January 2019 quite a good print of this film is available on DVD from Video Dimensions. This particular disc includes three brief but fascinating snippets of three different animatronic and robot creations; for example, one created by Westinghouse for the 1939 World's Fair. It also includes a trailer of the feature itself, and trailers from a couple of other movies available from Video Dimensions.I would add that this DVD release has excellent subtitles, available in white or yellow. I don't speak Russian, but the translation seems to be excellent, and judging by the Video Dimensions restoration credits after the feature, it would seem the person who did the translation is a native speaker of Russian. In addition, while the image is soft in parts, it is in surprisingly good condition, and the sound is also fine.

The cover of this DVD is shamelessly misleading. This film, despite its many titles, was never called R.U.R. It is NOT an adaptation of the famous play, which originated the word “robot” (or “worker”), and which also launched the idea that robots would replace people for doing their jobs. By the way, that hasn’t happened yet on a massive level, but it is true our modern age inches closer than ever to transforming menial jobs to being accomplished by machines.

Though RUR has been criticized as "heavy-handed propaganda," the capitalist world, from McCarthyism to such movies as "1984" and "Pretty Woman,", has always had its own (usually more insidious) propaganda. Meanwhile, displacement through automation and the specter of people begging, sleeping in the streets and flooding homeless shelters has become a fixture of most modern American cities. Since the 1978 movie, Norma Rae, there have been relatively few American movies that have overtly taken the side of the working class. So, despite its rough-hewn plot and rather tinny-sounding audio, I really enjoyed this movie. *Note: choose white subtitles when offered a choice during the opening menu as the yellow did not work for me. In addition, some of the subtitles appear briefly which did require a fair amount of pausing.