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Alexander Nevsky

Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Year: 1938
Run-time: 1 hr 51 min

- Here we have the return of the great Eisenstein, who had stopped working for a decade, and the first Russian film on the list in quite a while.  True to form, it's a groundbreaking work in sound film in the same way that his previous works had revolutionized silent film.  It would be a gross exaggeration to say this was the first great military epic, with outstanding works like Napoleon predating it, but it may be the most influential military epic, with everything from the cinematography to the score being like nothing else before it.  It's a slow-paced film in an era of Russian history that most westerners, myself included, know little about, but the heavy symbolism and deliberate pacing means that anyone will understand what's happening.  And, oh, to see the Germanic knights posed with their absurd and frightening helmets is really frightening, like Lord of the Rings from a Russian point of view.  This was a good one for sure.
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