A classic

Since this movie was the last classic directed by Sergei Eisenstein that I haven’t seen yet so far, i was quite eager to check it out. Well, the story turned out to pretty simple after all. Indeed, Russia was invaded by the Germans, Aleksandr Nevsky managed to gather Russian fighters from all over the country and they kicked the Germans’s asses, not much more than that and, to be honest, I have to admit that I actually had a hard time to get into the damned thing after all. I don’t know, I was also dealing with some personal stuff at the time so I was probably too distracted. The tricky thing with such movies is that you might dismiss then because they might seem outdated. Sure, the battle scenes in a modern blockbuster like ’Braveheart‘ might be more impressive and/or convincing but you have to keep in mind that this movie was made decades before and it was probably a huge influence in this area. Furthermore, back then, even if Eisenstein was finally taking his distance from the Soviet propaganda, this movie was still backed and approved by the Soviet government so everything about Nevsky which might have been slightly negative or controversial was completely toned down. As a result, the main character, Aleksandr Nevsky himself, turned out to be rather flat after all, especially if you watch first ‘Ivan Groznyy‘ with Ivan IV who was so much darker, complex and, well, pretty messed-up. Still, to have the Russian master focusing for the first time on such a huge historical epic was pretty neat and the damned thing was visually quite impressive for the time period. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow away, it is still a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Sergei Eisenstein’s work.