(no subject)

[ivyfic]

In preparation for my concert, I rented Alexander Nevsky this weekend. This is a Soviet propaganda film made in 1938 meant to rally the peasants against the Germans. And boy howdy, is it propaganda.

I can sum up the plot like this:
Oh noes! Germans!
Germans burn naked babies! (ya rly)
We must fight Germans! Especially the peasants! If you don't fight Germans you don't love Russia!
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Win! Cause Russia always wins!

And then if that wasn't subtle enough, it ends with Nevsky saying, "Those who come with a sword to us will die from that sword!" This is repeated with title cards in case you missed the point.

The battle scenes are quite impressive, since they were all done practically. You don't get the bodies flying the way you do in Lord of the Rings, but they really do run a couple hundred people on horses into a couple hundred people on foot. I don't think unions would let that happen nowadays. You also get things like horses completely wiping out on the ice, which I don't think PETA would let happen now.

The score is by Prokofiev, which is why I was watching it. We're performing it at Carnegie Hall on November 1. The reason I haven't bugged everyone about tickets for this is because we're not getting a discount on price. But if you don't mind the cost, come on down! It will be awesome. It is amazing how much Prokofiev has influenced modern film composers. Like, for example, Danny Elfman, who stole the Darkman theme entirely from Alexander Nevsky, orchestration and all.

Comments

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Can you get them to do the battle scenes for the concert? Because that I would definitely show up for. :)