Alexander Nevskiy. 1938 film

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

"Alexander Nevsky" by Sergei Eisenstein is a film made by state order. In 1938, before the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, there was an obvious military clash between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Eisenstein received an order from the very top to create an epic film that could raise and develop the patriotic feelings of the people, and the director coped with this task brilliantly. It is difficult to somehow assess the effect of the film on the population, but before the war it became the second most popular film after Georgy Vasiliev's Chapaev. After the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the film was temporarily banned from viewing, but after the outbreak of the war, it reappeared in cinemas.

The film tells the story of the struggle of Novgorod with the Teutonic Order during the crusade against Russia announced by the Pope. The Germans who fought for the Order are depicted as fierce and implacable enemies of the Russians, whose national identity and enthusiasm is constantly emphasized during the film, but the fact of the real national consciousness among the inhabitants of the Novgorod land in the Middle Ages is very doubtful. The German knights carry a culture and ideas alien to the Russians, while waging a struggle for destruction, which is shown in the scenes in the captured Pskov. The nature of the struggle that the Germans will wage against the Russians in the film is perfectly predicted - the Second World War will reproduce the scenes of the Pskov pogroms and executions in all the occupied territories of the USSR. The discontent caused and the national Russian desire for freedom, as expressed in the film, encourages the Novgorodians to stand unanimously (with the exception of the bourgeois merchants and traitorous monks) and selflessly stand up to fight the invaders. Alexander Nevsky, a brilliant and tall hero, who in peacetime is engaged in craft and trade, working for the good of the people, leads the fight against the Teutons and wins a great victory. The ideologization of the film is undoubted, but only such films could pass the strict censorship that Stalin personally arranged.

From the artistic side, "Alexander Nevsky" is a real breakthrough in the genre of epic cinema. Massive battle scenes, medieval clothes and armor, restored streets and a temple in Veliky Novgorod - projects that are technically and artistically complex are unique and new not only for Soviet, but also for world cinema in the 30s. XX century. The work of the operator and the musical accompaniment written by Prokofiev especially for this film are also brilliant. The acting of the actors does not make much of an impression, but they are all good for the 30s. level. The film is presented as a whole, and Eisenstein was able to breathe life into it with a story about two suitors, a blacksmith and some notable trifles.

In 1942, the year of the seven hundredth anniversary of the Battle on the Ice, a poster was issued with the words of JV Stalin: "May the courageous image of our great ancestors inspire you in this war."