Alexander Nevsky (1938)
Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein, Dmitri Vasilyev

Film Review

The fear of an invasion from Nazi Germany in 1938 was the motivating force behind this lavish historical epic by the great Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein.  The story of the 13th century warrior prince Alexander Nevsky became a rallying cry for Russians of all ages to be prepared to take up arms in defence of their country.  The film is strangely prescient, since its cataclysmic ending prefigures the humiliating defeat of the Nazis at Stalingrad in 1942-3.

Alexander Nevsky marked a significant change in Eisenstein's approach to filmmaking.  This was partly the result of pressure put on him by his producers at Mosfilm to make a film that was accessible to the masses, but also because Eisenstein himself had evolved some of his ideas.  He now saw character and narrative as having far greater importance than artistic style in the composition of the film - a reversal of the auteur principle.  Nowhere is this more apparent than in the way in which the film is edited.   Eisenstein favours more conventional editing techniques over the sophisticated montage methods he had developed in earlier films.

Previously, Eisenstein had relied on a technique known as dialectic montage - the juxtaposition of contrasting images - to evoke emotion through an impression of conflict.  In Alexander Nevsky, he favours another, more widely used approach, vertical montage, which seeks to achieve an organic unity between the various elements of the film, such as sound and image.  The best example of this is the meticulous alignment of Prokofiev's masterful score with the images we see on the screen.  The music works to underline the heroism of the gallant Russian soldiers and to stress the savagery of the child-butchering Teutons.  The sense of emotional cohesion is probably what makes this Eistenstein's most lyrical film.  The feeling of emotional conflict, so noticeable in his other films, is curiously muted here.

Another crucial departure from Eisenstein's earlier work is the use of a heroic lead character - in this case the Prince Alexander Nevsky - in place of the collective mass of the proletariat.  This reflects a change in Communist thinking in the 1930s, that ordinary men and women are not motivated by abstract notions of brotherhood, but by outstanding individuals - flesh and blood icons, to replace the religious icons of the past (party leader Josef Stalin being the obvious example).  Nevsky is the epitome of the proletariat hero - as was the charismatic actor who played him, Nikolai Cherkassov (who subsequently took the leading role in Eisenstein's 1944 film Ivan the Terrible).

Although Alexander Nevsky appears stylistically bland compared with Eistenstein's other films - it lacks the harsh realism of Battleship Potemkin (1925) and the sinister expressionism of Ivan the Terrible - Alexander Nevsky triumphs in other areas.  The main battle sequence (staged with thousands of serving Russian soldiers) is one of the most impressive ever filmed; it is exceptional both in its scale and in its seemingly relentless energy.

The success of Alexander Nevsky effectively revived Eisenstein's faltering career, after six years of inactivity.  It was well-received by critics at home and abroad and was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1939.  The film had to be withdrawn when peace negotiations were taking place between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in 1939, but was hastily re-released when hostilities began two years later.  Contrary to what might have been expected, this is not a contrived piece of state-sponsored propaganda but a deeply felt expression of patriotism, a film whose appeal extends way beyond the place and time where it was conceived.

Film Synopsis

In 1242, Russia finds herself being invaded on two fronts. On the East, the country is attacked by Mongol raiders, and on the West by Teutonic knights.  Some Russian leaders attempt to forge an alliance with the foreign invaders, but they come to be regarded as traitors. Those who resist are brutally slain.  When the city of Pskov falls under a violent onsalught, the Prince Alexander Nevsky sets about creating an army of brave warriors to save his country from the Teutons...