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Plot: The story of how a great Russian prince led a ragtag army to battle an invading force of Teutonic Knights.
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:September 19, 2008
Eisenstein knew how to make a good movie--Battleship Potemkin was awesome. With Stalin overseeing production, however, the end product of this is a poorly-paced, lackluster, dreadfully-choreographed war film with tragically bad sound quality. while it had its brief moments of poignancy, resonance, and even humour, most of it just fell disappointingly flat.
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MCT:August 31, 2008Illustrious portrait of a heroic Russian figure demented by a dutiful force in a spiritual defense.The film may display images of pious behavior but haste not,this is an epic drama and the people are who matter most,not ideologies.Magnificent score by Prokofiev.
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MCT:July 4, 2008Germany: History's Go-To Bad Guy
Okay, that's not really all that true. This movie, you should know, is a piece of propaganda. A fantastic, amazing, unique piece of propaganda that is unique and will never hit these heights again, but propaganda nonetheless. Look at the year it was made. 1938. Russia was going toe to toe with the Nazis at the time. Frankly, with the Russian casualties at the time, you really can't blame them for needing a pick-me-up movie. Well, this is their pick me up movie. This movie uses the glory days of Russia to really rile up the troops while brow-beating the hell out of anyone who wasn't on board. Frankly, it's pretty effective, although there are a few things that I would like to say about it.
First, I'm going to address the movie straight on. This is Eisenstein's first sound film and his return to film in ten years. While I am wildly impressed with The Adventures of Robin Hood, you have to compare how epic and grandiose (and with purpose!) Alexander Nevsky is. This movie was made the same year as Robin Hood and almost puts that movie to shame. The other movie is clearly a studio film and has an unsurpassed budget, but this Russian propaganda piece has pretty much one of the most amazing war scenes ever done. The sheer amount of extras in this film is actually staggaring. There's just these long shots of people running and tripping over each other because there are so many. Now, I won't get into fight choreography because I don't think this movie would have been effective with a very polished fight choreography (they're peasants! Where would they have learned to parry?). But the sheer amount of people on screen was fantastic and mindblowing. Now, most people would have settled with the Cecil B. DeMille approach to the screen by just throwing bodies on screen, but the cinematography in this movie doesn't belong in 1930. First of all, I should address that this movie was filmed in the summer. No ice. The entire movie takes place on the arctic tundra. Okay, that scale just got a lot bigger, didn't it? Now add some of these shots. There's a few that I think really deserve some attention and respect because I was sitting there, jaw-dropped at how gorgeous the movie was. But there's this scene where the first army is attacking the German forces and the second army is standing back. We get this epic distant shot of a war in the distance contrasted with vast amount of nothingness. He must have had hundreds of actors fighting at full force only to have almost all detail ignored. I just thought, "the balls on that man!" Secondly, immediately after the battle, the women are looking for the wounded and gathering the dead. There are these torches across this long tundra. I don't know how Eisenstein got the weather to be that pitch black during the day, but the torches against that black sky is powerful. Most people would have waited until night, but he still gets the full light for the shot and manages to have the torches contrast against the blackness. I want a print of that in my room. (Right next to the poster of Lou Ferrigno telling me to have an incredible school year.)
The propaganda was interesting. I'm used to seeing American and Canadian propaganda. (You think I'm kidding? Look through some of my reviews. You'll find a Canadian Air Force propaganda film.) Those movies are pretty straightforward and really obvious. It is almost more winking at the camera than most. This movie really is unique because it is a rallying cry and, despite not making a "Russian v. German 1938" film, they use another story. We don't really do that as much as we should. Sure, it still happens, but two worlds seemed to be colliding with Nevsky. Eisenstein made some really obvious choices in terms of what he did with costuming, characterization, and religion. Religion is the most interesting part to me. Christianity came to Russia (at least Ukraine, I'd have to do more research to verify the rest of Russia) in 991 AD. Yet, the Germans are seen as almost religious fantatics in this movie. Their garb is covered with the cross and they are followed by a mousey archbishop, who is helping the German soldiers fight dirty. (I'm referring to summoning the wall of soldiers.) On the archbishop's hat, the Vatican (I assume) keys have been rearranged to form a swastika. Also, the religious garb on the German knights make them seem demonic. This goes as far as to see the head prince of the German army with demonic horns clouding his face. When he is hanged, the helmet does not come off. Eisenstein was clearly demonizing his enemy at times and making them inhuman. Also, there is no denying the costume design on the soldiers mirroring Nazi footsoldiers. At one point, I thought I was watching a time-travel movie. It was amazing to see these choices and how obvious it is to see these things looking back seventy years.
The one concern I had for the movie (and I know why he did it!) is the Lord of the Rings style end. Most of the movie is simply the battle. It is a really straightforward story. But there's this denounment that just keeps going and going. I feel like I have to step out of time and review this objectively because I know what he is doing. He is having the memorial for the fallen Russian soldiers and is trying to raise spirits for new men to fight, but since I don't have to fight in the Russian Army in 1938, it does less for me. He even goes so far as to have his titular character give this rousing speech about the cowardice of not fighting, which he mind as well have been looking in the camera at the time. We finally get to see a little bit of Christianity on the side of Russia in these final moments though. It had to be an intentional choice to distance themselves from religion. Remember, Russia was not only fighting the Germans at the time, but steeped in Communism. To deny the entire historical importance of the Church at the time would have rubbed the audience the wrong way, but I'm sure that Eisenstein was trying to keep the higher ups happy.
This movie really is fantastic. To think that this is his first movie in ten years and his first non-silent movie is mindblowing. I love silent films and I love talkies, but I had that transition period of early talkies. Thsi movie doesn't have any of the concerns of that period and is really an epic in terms of scope. What's funny is that it really is a Russian epic that fits in the span of an hour-and-forty-seven minutes. I guess there's a first for everything. -
MCT:June 15, 2008
The mighty USSR. I cry when I think of the crap that comes out of there now. Great epic. Bit nationalistic. Typical Stalinist.
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MCT:May 30, 2008Much overrated in my opinion. It was filmed beautifully, but the battle sccenes are laughable, the backdrops wrinkled, the script weak, the story uneven and seemingly poorly edited and the acting overtheatrical for my taste.
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MCT:January 20, 2008
I was going to give this three stars as it's an entertaining and interesting film for its day, full of some great cinematography. But after reading a bit more on it, specifically that this was a veiled metaphor representing Russia's strength to withstand Hitler and his German scourge, in that historical context it's an even more interesting film. There's a parallel here between this and "Triumph of the Will", in that both are propaganda pieces espousing the courage and unconquerable spirit of their respective peoples. Well worth a watch for its historical significance both in terms of the rise of the Third Reich and its place as a classic of Russian cinema.
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MCT:January 16, 2008
another masterpiece . shadows and lights , the movement , the montage , the power of plans, are magical
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MCT:October 22, 2007
One of the most beautiful pieces in cinema is the battle in the ice in this movie. Sadly, Alexander Nevsky is quite hard to find nowadays, except if you buy it online
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MCT:August 9, 2007
This just goes to show you that film making doesn't have to be recent to be wonderful. Some of this is REALLY, REALLY good. Even though the helmet with the hand on top is a bit tacky.
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MCT:July 9, 2007
A piece of Soviet propaganda made to prepare the U.S.S.R. for war with Germany. Although the films battle sequences are ridiculously long, it has inspired many of today's movies and is one of the first epic battle movies. I personally thought this movies was boring, but from a historical standpoint, this film is a must see.
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MCT:July 3, 2007
A fantastic piece of action and propoganda. Originally designed to prepare the Soviet citizenry for war, it was surpressed after the non-agression pact was signed with Germany. When the panzers started rolling in the film was brought out again, helping to give the Soviet people the confidence they needed to continue the tradition of not allowing anybody to succesfully invade Russia during the winter.
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MCT:June 23, 2007
Eisenstein's best, and the battle scenes are extraordinary, for the earlier days of film. The musical score is by Prokofiev, and brilliant & daring - very great!
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Comments
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doctorfaoustposted 264 days ago
