Vuk Karadzic (1987–1988) User Reviews

Unforgettable story of Serbian people resurrection

[vveljko-756-664763 · 10/10 · 16 December 2011]

An epic series that has unfortunately been forgotten even in the country where it was created.Through the eyes of Vuk Karadzic, the reformer of Serbian language, the authors gave us a story of rebirth of Serbian nation from the bonds of slavery under Turkish rule. Serbs where the first people in Balkans who raised the uprising against the Ottomans and their struggle was not only in the field of war, but in the area of literacy and science as well. Fight for the language was taking place same as the fight for freedom.

The best actors that this country has ever had revive the brutal world of suffering, intrigues and acts of heroism. Miki Manojlovic, as Vuk Karadzic, and Aleksandar Bercek in the role of ruthless, but clever Serbian prince Milos Obrenovic have set hardly reachable standards of acting with their astonishing performances. Marko Nikolic,Danilo Lazovic, Velimir Zivojinovic,Gorica Popovic, Rade Markovic, it simply impossible to enumerate all great actors who gave outstanding contributions to this series. It is specially interesting the performance of Marko Nikolic as a Karadjordje because of his great resemblance with the mentioned Serbian war lord.Beautiful and suggestive music of Vojislav Kostic gave so much to this series.

A worthy effort

[harryplinkett14 · 8/10 · 22 April 2018]

It's a solid production. Granted, some battle scenes are a bit underwhelming, due to a limited budget. But other than that, production values are quite satisfactory. My main complaints regarding this series have to do with the way the protagonist, Vuk Karadzic, is presented. There is a tendency to defend his views and actions, and present his character almost as a saintly figure. At the same time, the way he is presented in his youth is paradoxically unflattering. He is made to look innocent and inquisitive, yet he comes across as socially awkward and silly, even dim. Also, the series suffers from a compulsive need to stress that Karadzic was a genius regarding anything language related. Learning letters, calligraphy, or anything else is something he does with supernatural ease. It's as if language, and nothing else, was something he was instinctively drawn to even when he was a toddler. And the series reminds us of this every chance it gets. Did this man have no interest in anything other than letters and language, since the age of five?

Masterpiece!

[Nikola1232135 · 10/10 · 2 September 2023]

Epic series about rebirth of Serbian nation and it's culture after centuries of ottoman rule! Some of most important Serbs throughout history featured by a generation of best serbian actors! Story follows Vuk Stefanovic, father of modern Serbian language! It follows Vuk's life long struggle to standardize the language by among other things using two simple rules: "write as you speak" and "read as it's written".

Therefore it's a "must watch" for any of you who would like to understand 19th century's two uprisings and it's leaders, together with all impactfull Serbs who together with Vuk formed modern Serbia!

Great series about a great man

[ereinion · 15 March 2005]

This is one of the best series ever made in Yugoslavia and stars almost all the best actors that the country ever had. The series recounts the life and times of Vuk Karadzic, the man who created the Serbo-Croatian grammar and spelling, and sampled countless folk tales and issued them. It's a story of one great man who lived in a dangerous and very exciting time. The series also show Serbia's violent history and the people who fought to rule it, like the ruthlessly ambitious Milos Obrenovic and his more popular contemporary Karadjordje (Black George), whom Obrenovic later had murdered.

The story also involves Karadzic's meetings with such great persons as Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Johann Strauss, France Presern and Jernej Kopitar (famous Slovenian writers). The acting is superb and the unknown actor playing Vuk as a young man really puts a lot of weight in his performance, specially considering he was virtually unknown before this. Aleksandar Bercek is also superb as the cunning Obrenovic and Miki Manojlovic tops them all as the old Vuk.

This is at times a quite brutal show, but always fascinating to watch, specially for those who are interested in Karadzic's life and work and Serbia's and Balkan's history in the late 18th to mid 19th century. There is a lot to see and enjoy in. I recommend this very warmly for anyone who likes historical epic dramas.10/10

Worth watching

[kjgkreek · 7/10 · 27 September 2016]

First of all i want to underline that i am Serbian who is familiar with Serbian history. In a way this is masterpiece who show one of the most important period in our history, it show rise of Serbian country after 500 years under the Ottomans and in same time we have cultural revolution which make Serbian writing as one of most inventive. Mostly it is very history accurate but there is some missing parts which are avoid. Then we have great acting by most major character but supporting actors often spoil all that. Dialogues in a lot of major scenes are made simplified and not realistic for such a important moments. During entire series we will meet lot of historically important figures but viewers who are not familiar with history will lack information who are that characters. Simple problem is that they are usually mentioned just by first name or even not named during they appearance. Still besides all of this lacking series manage to show how hard times we had in Serbia during that period. CONCLUSION: It is worth to watch it, but you should have some book of Serbian history by your side for better understanding.

Meh

[richkiel · 5/10 · 15 April 2022]

The series presents anyone opposed to Karadzic's views on language as a fool, a malicious or ignorant person, or someone seeking to preserve power by sabotaging his language reforms. Why does the series just assume his work was flawless and his suggestions superior to established language norms? Also, I hated the actor playing him. He looks sleazy.

Outdated and suspicious in it's purpose

[picida-85120 · 3/10 · 15 April 2022]

Not a good watch if you want to have a history lesson or if you are learning about anything that is presented in this. It's also possible that it is made with the intent of falsificating history(I.e. History revisionism) or the writer was simply not well educated in this topic and made a movie based on hearsay. Vuk simply took a language that already existed (croatian language) and then proclaimed it to be the 'serbian language', this is not reflected in the series. As time goes on this series is becoming more and more outdated and factually wrong regardless of its intent. Regarding the acting, some actors were well versed but others were the complete opposite.