Alexandre Nevski

“People of Russia, rise to the glorious battle and come fight to the death." Affected? Yes. Pathos? Maybe too much. Propaganda? Unmistakably. Theatrical? Unarguably. Funny from today’s point of view. In some places it certainly is. Bad? Not even remotely. If you approach it with certain detachment, it is impossible to miss that Eisenstein was an excellent, visionary filmmaker. Even so, his talent is outshone by Prokofiev’s music which is simply unbelievable. Personally, I would have preferred less studio scenery and more exteriors. If you’re the sort of viewer who gets pumped up with enthusiasm, Alexander Nevsky is a movie you should give a wide berth to. Otherwise it could easily happen that you will be filled with such a pressing desire to go out into the streets to slaughter some good-for-nothing Germans in the name of Mother Russia. (27/01/2008)

I would never say that I would rate Eisenstein's film with the word nice, and yet here, everything is nice. A nice and clear medieval setting, a straightforward and unambiguous hero, a clear problem, a nice story in the side storyline even with a female action protagonist... and I could go on and on praising every element of this lovely little play. The music is greatly aided by the editing track, which straightforwardly tells the tale of how evil German knights (with dramatic music) want to conquer Russia (a playful musical motif). Yes, the battle will not be fought without human casualties, but love and goodness will triumph over lies and hatred and be resolved. Why complicate it when it's so nice? (20/06/2017)

The historic Russian people, every man, every woman, must come together under the leadership of their powerful ruler (no individualism) in order to crush (no offensive) the imagined Germanic beast (no humanity) threatening their beloved motherland. (Of course, the priests with the swastika embroidery stand at the very top of all rottenness.) Each of them brandishes their sword for themselves only during the battles, which are rather more frolicsome than terrifying and wonderfully turn in favour of the Russians as a matter of course. At least from the formalistic perspective – the fighters facing their faceless, helmeted enemy are filmed in separate shots. With every theatrical gesture, Eisenstein’s first film with sound is anti-German propaganda, which brought the legendary director praise from Stalin himself (“You’re a real Bolshevik, Sergei”), allegedly to his own dismay, and rescued his career after the failure of his Bezhin Meadow project. All of the action in the film is subordinated to the idea of “we will defend ourselves”. The battle is coming for an hour, the battle is fought for half an hour, and then the battle subsides for twenty minutes. Nothing complicated. Neither the presence of Eisenstein’s trademark shots (a character filmed in profile with great depth of field with the distant landscape in the background) nor Prokofiev’s rousing music nor the masterful synthesis of image and sound in the scene with the cracking ice changed my conviction that Eisenstein’s silent films (Battleship Potemkin, Strike) were more impactful. 70% (13/11/2013)

Sergei M. Eisenstein is a filmmaker whose films are simply worth watching even today. I'm not sure if it was he who directed the fight scenes or if his collaborators were more involved, but I can believe that he was primarily behind them. They are very good and lose nothing even in the present day, except that they are not gory. (23/05/2016)

To the Russian! A gripping film with an absolutely haunting score by Prokofiev and many fantastic shots. I am not giving it a fifth star because Alexander Nevsky is propaganda (I didn't particularly mind it, and besides, propaganda films are made all the time and will continue to be made), but because it is so lengthy in places. Especially after the battle (it could have been a bit shorter). Otakar Vávra obviously picked up a lot for his Jan Žižka in this film. (11/10/2015)