Hoberman («emerges from the mists of time...
as a career - capping epic tragedy») to the New Yorker's Anthony Lane («lovers of cinema should reach for their fedoras, turn up the collars of their
coats, and sneak to this picture through a mist of rain») to Newsweek's David Ansen («the best foreign film of the year»), critics from across the spectrum, who almost never agreed, rallied around Melville's
neglected masterpiece.