Daily Movie Rec 5/9/2023

Alexander Nevsky (1938)

"The strength of a sword is measured by the arm that wields it!"

Directed by: Sergei Eisenstein & Dmitriy Vasilev

Cinematography by: Eduard Tisse

Country: Soviet Union

Genre: History/Biography/War/Action/Drama

Plot:

A mythologized telling of the 13th century battle in which Prince Alexander led an army of commoners to victory against invading German Teutonic Knights.

Reasons to watch:

This historical war drama was made and released at a time when the alliance between the Soviets and Nazi Germany was fraying, and it’s just as much of a preemptive rallying cry for Russians as a “don’t fuck with us” warning to the Germans (they didn’t listen and it went poorly). Though it’s propaganda through and through, Eisenstein’s first sound film is a breathtaking technical marvel demonstrating that the legendary filmmaker didn’t lose a touch of the camera wizardry that made him one of the most influential artists of the silent era. Also apparently co-director Dmitriy Vasilev was assigned to the project mostly just to wrangle Eisenstein whenever he wandered too far into “formalism,” which is amazing. That boy Eisenstein really loved the art of image-making. And that’s very obvious looking at this film.

Where to watch:

The Criterion Channel/Tubi