ALEXANDER NEVSKY Movie Review

Few movies have been subjected to as much revisionist criticism as has Sergei Eisenstein's staggering action epic about the legendary Russian prince who defeated the savage Teutonic hordes on a vast frozen lake in 1242. Commissioned by Stalin to whip the Russian masses into an anti-Nazi frenzy, Eisenstein understood that there should be no reason why propaganda couldn't be rip-snorting fun as well as effective. Nevsky is portrayed by Nikolai Cherkassov (who later would play Ivan the Terrible in the film that drove Stalin to turn in his Eisenstein fan club membership card) and his deep voice and impressively sculpted features made him an extraordinarily popular screen hero—the 13th-century Indiana Jones. The Teutonic knights, a band of blonde religious fanatics who burn alive the Russian babies of each town they conquer, appear to be unstoppable until Prince Nevsky makes his nation's population—no matter how old or how young—realize the true magnitude of the German threat. In structure, Alexander Nevsky resembles a classic western, though the cattle rustlers are replaced here by religious tyranny and fascism. Eisenstein's first sound film features a fabulous score by Sergei Prokofiev that has since been turned into a cantata and is still performed regularly by symphony orchestras worldwide. The most celebrated sequence in the film is the famous “battle on ice” that finally deals a death blow to the Germans on the frozen lake Peipus. The battle concludes as the ice cracks, sending the heavy, armor-laden knights to the bottom in an image of—ironically—biblical-style justice that recalls the Red Sea closing over the armies of Egypt. Alexander Nevsky was made in 1938, but Eisenstein's film did encounter a rocky road to release. It seems that just as it was ready to hit every screen in Russia, the Nazi-Soviet pact was signed and the film was sent to the showers. But the phony peace didn't hold, and soon the images of German invaders became all-too-real, and Alexander Nevsky became the hit the Eisenstein needed to resuscitate his career. Incidentally, for parents who think that movie tie-in merchandise is a recent phenomenon, Moscow stores couldn't keep the official Alexander Nevsky swords and helmets in stock after the picture's release.

NEXT STOP … Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 & 2, Henry V (1945), Chimes at Midnight

1938 110m/B RU Nikolai Cherkassov, Nikolai P. Okholopkov, Andrei Abrikosov; D: Sergei Eisenstein; W: Sergei Eisenstein, Pyotr Pavlenko; C: Eduard Tisse; M: Sergei Prokofiev.VHS, IV BMG, MRV, NOS