Everything about Alexander Nevsky Film totally explained
Alexander Nevsky (Александр Невский) is a
1938 historical drama film directed by
Sergei Eisenstein and
Dmitry Vasiliev and produced by
Mosfilm, based on the life of
Alexander Nevsky. With
Nikolai Cherkasov in the title role and a score by
Sergei Prokofiev,
Alexander Nevsky was Eisenstein's most popular sound film.
Synopsis
The film depicts the
13th century conflict between the
Teutonic Knights of the
Holy Roman Empire 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 Chudskoe, the outnumbered Novgorodians defeat the Germanic invaders.
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. The film contains many elements of
propaganda that reflect the political situation of the 1930s, and portrays Nevsky as a fisherman and a proletarian hero. 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." 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. This peace with an Asiatic threat is also be a reference to Stalin's policy of not escalating war with
Japan because of the threat of Nazi Germany. See
Nomonhan Incident.
Unfortunately for
Eisenstein, the film explicitly mocked treaty-making with the Germans, and 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, and 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, its soundtrack suffers from less-than-satisfactory sound quality, 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 dynamic and tonal range of the music formerly had to make do with Prokofiev's
cantata, which greatly compresses and recomposes the original score. In recent years, however, the practice has developed of screening the film with the accompaniment of a live orchestra and chorus.
Style
Alexander Nevsky is less experimental in its narrative structure than
Eisenstein's 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.
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. Prokofiev viewed the film's rough cut as the first step in composing its inimitable score. The strong and technically innovative collaboration between
Eisenstein and Prokofiev in the editing process resulted in a match of music and imagery that remains a standard for filmmakers. The film climaxes in the half-hour
battle on the ice, propelled by Prokofiev's ominous, rousing, triumphant musical narrative, a sequence that has served as a model for epic movie battles ever since (for example, in
Spartacus or the
Star Wars saga, especially in the Hoth battle of
The Empire Strikes Back).
Pop culture references
The
Simpsons episode "
G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)" used a track 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),
Mulan (1998), 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
1977 film Wizards rotoscoped--ie, animated over-- footage of the ice-battle scene from
Nevsky to create parts of Blackwolf's evil mutant army.
In
John Milius's
1984 film
Red Dawn, a marquee advertising a showing of Alexander Nevsky can be seen as the Wolverines make their way through Calumet for the first time since the attack.
Movie-concerts
In the 1990s a new print became available, which was cleaned up somewhat. A number of symphony orchestras gave performanances of Prokofiev's
cantata, synchronized with a showing of the new print. The
New York Philharmonic,, the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the
San Francisco Symphony, and the
Philadelphia Orchestra are four such ensembles. The concerts were quite popular, because Prokofiev's music is badly degraded by the original soundtrack recording, which suffers from extreme
distortion and limited
frequency response, as well as cuts to the original score to fit scenes that had already shot. The cantata not only restored cuts but considerably expanded parts of the score.
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.
Further Information
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