One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - the film

Just a brief update - got the film working - my mistake before.

John Hurt who was to go on to play Strelnikov in Dr Zhivago, not only played the part of Ivan but also narrated - reading passages from the book. Today, no doubt, the part would be played by a Russian or at least an Eastern European.
  The film throughout exposes the futility of the Gulags, the endless privations, and most of all the gloom, coldness and bleakness of the inmates' lives.
  There is some criticism of the film on the web but we found it to be true to the book and cleverly filmed.
  The minutiae of the men's lives, the close ups of eating disgusting looking gruel, the hiding places for precious objects - all in subdued greys and browns - evoked a feeling of despair and desperation for their plight. The sense of isolation is conjured up by the opening and closing sequences. Not only is the camp miles from anywhere but there is also the feeling that these men are forgotten by society and could just disappear.

  PS And because I like to find allusions -  I heard this in the film and found it in the book.
'Morning came as it always does'.
  I have always liked this phrase which is in a favourite children's book - Amos and Boris by William Steig and now I know where it originates from - Ivan Denisovich - very satisfying.