Alexander Nevsky (film)

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Alexander Nevsky
A 1938 Soviet poster
Directed by	Sergei M. Eisenstein Dmitri Vasilyev
Written by	Sergei M. Eisenstein Pyotr Pavlenko
Starring	Nikolai Cherkasov Nikolai Okhlopkov Andrei Abrikosov
Music by	Sergei Prokofiev
Release date(s)	December 1, 1938 March 22, 1939
Running time	112 min
Country	USSR
Language	Russian
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Alexander Nevsky (Александр Невский) is a 1938 historical drama film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and Dmitry Vasiliev and produced by Mosfilm. With Nikolai Cherkasov in the title role and a score by Sergei Prokofiev, Alexander Nevsky is Eisentein's most popular sound film, and has an audience appeal not found in his Ivan the Terrible (film).

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Political subtext 3 Style 4 Pop culture references 5 Movie-Concerts 6 New Edition of the Film 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Synopsis

The film depicts the 13th century conflict between the Teutonic Knights and the Russian people of Novgorod. It follows the knights as they invade Pskov and massacre its population. Alexander Nevsky then rallies the people of Novgorod and at a battle on the surface of the frozen Lake Peipus, the outnumbered Novgorodians defeat the Germanic invaders.

[edit] Political subtext

Alexander Nevsky was made during the Stalinist era, when the Soviet Union was at odds with Nazi Germany. Stalin directly requested that Eisenstein make a film that would warn the Soviet people of German aggression.^{[citation needed]} The film contains many elements of propaganda that reflect the political situation of the 1930s. The helmets worn by the Teutonic soldiers resemble larger versions of German soldier helmets from the 20th century, while "in the first draft of the Alexander Nevsky script, swastikas even appeared in the invaders' helmets."^[1] The film also shows Nevsky making peace with the Mongols, his old enemies, in order to face the Teutonic Knights, hinting at the necessity of making peace with the Western powers to deal with Nazi Germany.

Unfortunately for Eisenstein, the film was released a few months before Stalin agreed to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which provided for non-aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union. The film was therefore suppressed and not shown in theaters. This changed dramatically in 1941 after the German attack on the Soviet Union: the film began to be shown in many Soviet cinemas. Scenes from the film were also incorporated in the American propaganda film The Battle of Russia.

Although the film is visually impressive, it suffers from a less-than-satisfactory soundtrack, because Stalin's distrust of Eisenstein's intellectual motivations led to the premature confiscation, review, and approval of the film while its soundtrack was still in the process of being edited. This is particularly unfortunate because of the memorable musical score that Sergei Prokofiev wrote for the film. Those wishing to hear the full range of the music can listen to one of the recordings of Prokofiev's cantata.

[edit] Style

Alexander Nevsky is less experimental in its narrative structure than his previous films: it tells one story with a single narrative arc and focuses on one main character. The special effects and cinematography were some of the most advanced at the time.^{[citation needed]}

The film was the first of Eisenstein's dramatic films to use sound. (A 1933 documentary, Que Viva Mexico!, had also used sound.) The film's score was composed by Sergei Prokofiev, who later reworked the score into a concert cantata. Eisenstein developed dramatic new methods of mixing music and visuals by editing the film to accomodate Prokofiev's score, not the other way around, as is nearly always done. The entire film culminates in the half hour battle scene set to Prokofiev's pounding score, a scene that set the model for most epic battle scenes to have come since.

[edit] Pop culture references

The Simpsons episode "G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)" used a song from the soundtrack of this movie in a parody U.S. Army recruitment ad.

The Tom Clancy novel Red Storm Rising depicted two American intelligence officers watching Alexander Nevsky (pirating the Soviet state television satellite feed) on the eve of World War III. The officers took note of the film's improved sound track as well as its anti-German sentiment and strong sense of Russian (as opposed to Soviet) nationalism. The next day, as part of a plot to split the NATO alliance politically, KGB agents detonated a bomb in the Kremlin and arrested a West German sleeper agent on charges of terrorism. While airing Nevsky immediately prior to the bombing may have been intended to inflame the Soviet population in favor of war with the West, the timing of the two events led the Americans to suspect the plot.

Several films have scenes strongly influenced by the Battle of Lake Peipus, including Doctor Zhivago (1965) and King Arthur (2004). However, the most striking homage appears during the culminating battle in the Ken Russell Harry Palmer sleuth story Billion Dollar Brain (1967).

Animator Ralph Bakshi's 1978 version of Lord of the Rings rotoscoped the ice-battle scene from Nevsky to create the Battle of Helm's Deep. The animators painted over the original images: Teutonic Knights became orcs, for example. The technique was fairly effective, but the rest of the film didn't come up to the same level. Peter Jackson's version of Lord of the Rings does not use this technique.

[edit] Movie-Concerts

In the 1990's a new print became available, which was cleaned up somewhat. A number of symphony orchestras gave performanances of Prokofieff's cantata, synchronized with a showing of the new print.The San Francisco Symphony was one such orchestra. The concerts were quite popular, because Prokoffief's music is badly degraded by the original soundtrack recording.

[edit] New Edition of the Film

In 1995, a new edition of the film was issued on VHS, for which Prokofiev's score was entirely re-recorded in hi-fi digital stereo, although the dialogue portions of the soundtrack were left unchanged. This enabled a new generation to experience Eisenstein's film and Prokofiev's score in high fidelity, rather than having to settle for the badly recorded musical portion that had existed since the film's original release. Unfortunately, it is the original version of the film, with its 1938 musical soundtrack, that has been released on DVD. The 1995 version has yet to be released in that medium.

[edit] See also

• Middle Ages in film

[edit] References

1. ^ Unspecified (1998). Eisenstein's Symphonic Vision. In Alexander Nevsky [DVD liner notes]. Chatsworth: Image Entertainment.

[edit] External links

• Alexander Nevsky at the Internet Movie Database
• Criterion Collection essay by J. Hoberman
• Article from Three Oranges, the Journal of the Serge Prokofiev Foundation, on the radio version of the Nevsky soundtrack.
• Preview clip at Google Video
• Complete film at Google Video

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