Watch Ten Little Indians For Free

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I am a fairly avid Agatha Christie fan, having read dozens of her works. Few of her books, if any, are better than her tale of ten doomed people who are marooned on an island and die one by one at the hand of an unseen foe (early on, they are all accused by a disembodied voice of committing murders that are untouchable by the law). I have been wishing to see an excellent film adaptation of And Then There Were None (or Ten Little Indians...or Ten Little N*****s if you're a real purist--in which case this edition may satisfy you even more thoroughly) for many years. I don't know how I did not know this Russian version existed until last night, but I am extremely happy I found it. It leaves the others, including the fairly charming 1945 edition, in the dust. (To be fair, I've seen the '45 and '65 edition, but not the English-language ones from the 70s and the 80s, which I've heard are not worth watching according to multiple sources.) Most of this review will come from the POV of someone who enjoys the Christie book (though I will be careful not to give away the biggest stuff).I'll start by saying the racist element is troubling for a modern American audience. The Russian title is along the lines of the original 1939 book title Ten Little N*****s, and in some versions of this film, the subtitles use this term consistently (the one I saw uses "Indians", which is admittedly still offensive, but considerably less so IMO). Certainly the figurines representing each of the guests are African in depiction. If you are able to look past this, it's the best version there is. But if not, it would be completely understandable. A couple of other negatives: the subtitles are often a bit comical or not grammatically accurate, but that part, for me, was easily overlooked after a few minutes in the face of its overwhelming positive qualities. Finally, while the music is generally pretty good, it occasionally became a bit over-the-top for my taste.The cast, direction, cinematography, screenplay, and atmosphere are all fantastic. The vast majority of the words (though obviously in Russian) are lifted directly from Christie's novel (if the subtitles I saw are to be believed), and the names and situations are almost exactly as in the book as well. These are tremendous positives, in my eyes, though it could be seen as being slavish to the original work. Two significant changes (there are others, but I feel they're in line with the original novel's intent): 1) Phillip Lombard has a dream about the East African natives he abandoned (this is hardly a spoiler as he is one of the only people to readily admit he is guilty of the crime of which he is accused). 2) Lombard and Vera Claythorne have sex (somewhat disturbing, almost non-consensual sex). While there is certainly some sexual tension between them in the novel, it does not come close to boiling over like in this movie. #1 made me giggle a time or two, while #2 was perfectly fine for me, right in line with the atmosphere and situation established in the movie.As far as it goes, I'd say I would have had the audience discover who the killer was about 90 seconds later than this movie does, and I'd have had the killer linger in a little more detail about how they did it, but the fact that they have more or less kept the novel's ending (instead of the play/movie adaptations' endings since) is such a big win for me, the Christie fan viewer.I cannot recommend this work enough if you want to see a good Christie adaptation. I'd say my previous favorite was the '70s Death on the Nile with Peter Ustinov (though Suchet is a better Poirot) and Mia Farrow, but that pales significantly in the face of the universally good performances and excellent atmosphere of Desyat negrityat.

This version of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Non-PCs is head ans shoulders above the previous versions notwithstanding that one was the work of Rene Clair. It's a testament to the quality of this version that I watched an unsubtitled version containing to the best of my knowledge none of the four Russian words I know - please, thank you, yes, no - yet had no problem in following the story. Director Stanislav Govorukhin has opted for atmosphere/acting about 60-40 and it pays off. He lets us know from the first just how isolated the 8 guests and 2 servants will be on not so much an island as a large rock, a huge block of granite rising almost sheerly out of the sea. The camera pans around the rock as the passengers disembark and when the boat turns back there is not even a glimpse of mainland. There's a nice touch on the soundtrack with versions of both My Baby Just Cares For Me and Stardust, including the verse. All of the actors were completely unknown to me and I was sufficiently impressed with the judge and Vera to ascertain their names, Vladimir Zeldin and Tatyana Drubich respectively.

Having read the book when I was thirteen,and having seen three of the four English language versions ("And then there were none" (1945)"ten little Indians" (1965) and (1974)),I thought that the adaptations were more and more mediocre .No longer.The Russian version is THE version I have been waiting for since I read the novel ,the one a Christie fan must not miss.The version I saw had no subtitles,but as an user has already pointed out,provided you know the story,you will not have problems for,to quote another user ,the screenplay is as "faithful as a dog" The cast ,although completely unknown outside Russia ,is close to perfect except perhaps for Miss Brent :the actress is quite good,but she is obviously too young for the part of a sixty-something spinster.All the others are how we would imagine them when we would read Christie's pages under the blankets ,or,when,when the lights were out,we would shiver in the dark night thinking of someone moving mysteriously on N......island.They are not ,except for Vera (probably because behind her angel's face her soul is black),good-looking,nice ,ludicrous.They are sinister-looking persons ,particularly Lombard who looks at his teeth (his wolf 's teeth) in the mirror .The movie contains scenes that will leave you on the edge of your seat:particularly the scene of the VOICE:even Orson Welles,who provided it in the 1974 version,could eat his heart out:the camera takes a high angle shot of the table and the "guests " when Mister Owen's voice ,threatening as never ,begins to accuse them .Oh This voice!If it does not make your flesh creep,nothing will!The N....Island is also faithful to Mrs Christie's depiction,tiny ,which makes the final scenes ,particularly this one (botched in the other versions ,including the Clair one) when Vera and Lombard,having discovered Armstrong's body ,stand by the sea ,with an obsessive soundtrack which only consists of the sound of the waves.My favorite scene is not included in the novel:Lombard's nightmare;he dreams he is lost in the jungle ;suddenly he finds a helping hand:it's the hand of a black man.Many flashbacks depict Vera's past: with her pupil Cyril Hamilton by the sea where the tragedy occurred ,Vera and her love Hugo ,the only one who thought she was a criminal.The last flashbacks are in color ,probably because those memories come back to haunt the girl with such a strength that she confuses present and past (that's exactly what she does in the novel ,which explains her final suicide);A short flashback shows Beatrice Taylor ,Miss Brent's pregnant maid ,rising from the river where she got drowned and desperately knocking on her window pane.Some may find the movie slow-moving and overlong (about 130 min ) but its attention to detail (Vera discovering the nursery rhyme,the clock ,Rodgers counting the little N.....,Miss Brent reading her bible ,or Lombard's revolver (actually a Beretta),and at last the judge in full regalia with red robe and wig) is fascinating.After the mountains,the Iranian desert and the jungle ,the director brings it all back home .Remakes are no longer a curse.The other versions were based on the play,and what worked on stage didn't on the screen.

Amazing! AllI can say is amazing! The best movie adaptation yet! I liked the realistic reactions rather than the wise cracks from older versions. Vera was played to perfection right down to the hanging and the Judge, all I can say is brilliant. I'm glad they played out the ending there versions were afraid to do, and the setting is just perfect to the way Christie described it! I'm also happy on the way they did the death scenes in that manor. Aside from liking Vera's breakdown, I was equally amazed by Miss Brents break down to her smashing her bible through the window! The score was just plain creepy! My only grip is the horrible subtitles, that look like they were written by some 4-year old! Plus they were completely off. Like the guy would speak and seconds later, the words would prompt on. Next time I'm watching it subtitle less, after all, it was so close to the book I felt like I didn't even need the subtitles! Overall I give it 9 out of 10 N i g g e rs!