Aleksander Nevsky

Eisenstein also knows that a broad historical approach to a massive war can only be successful by including some human interest and smaller subplots, so he inserts a nicely constructed love triangle with the serious Gavrilo (Andrei Abrikosov) and the more light-hearted Vasili (Nikolai Okholopkov) vying for the hand of Olga (Vera Ivasheva). They decide that the winner will be the man who shows the most courage during the battle, and the result mixes some humor and poignancy.

After the huge battle scene, a number of nearly dead and dying men raise up and call out for their missing wives and lovers—“Maria!” . . . “Nastasia!!” It’s a very touching scene that can never again be duplicated.

Wisely retaining Eduard Tisse as his cinematographer (the same man who filmed the memorable scenes in The Battleship Potemkin and October), the photography contains a number of remarkable sequences. Everyone goes orgasmic over the great medieval battle scene on the lake, but I also like the opening shots that visually tell the story of a much older battle with the stark skeletons strewn across the field, some with helmets remaining on the skulls.

Eisenstein certainly lays on the “symbolism” really thick in this propaganda film, though with the atrocities of the Holocaust, it’s not that exaggerated. The spiritual leader of the Teutonic Knights has a crest that parallels the Nazi swastika and the knights are dehumanized with silly looking white helmets that don’t allow us to see much of their faces (perhaps this inspires the stormtroopers of George Lucas’ Star Wars). These Germans are brutal—they hang old men, burn women, and toss infants into blazing fires.

Certainly Aleksander Nevsky qualifies as unabashed propaganda, but it also ranks as a first rate film about war that holds up because of Eisenstein’s film artistry. Years from now filmmakers will continue to study this film to learn how to compose and film effective battle scenes, which is far more than can be said for other blatantly propaganda films. After all, how many future filmmakers will look to John Wayne’s The Green Berets for instructional material?

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