Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a master of the film medium,
employing cinematic techniques that were as revolutionary as the
tumultuous times in which he lived. He was an innovative genius, a
theoretician, and a tutor for generations of aspiring directors -
most notably, Orson Welles, who reportedly claimed that the
celluloid inspirations for Citizen Kane were influenced by
Eisenstein's 1925 masterpiece, Battleship Potemkin. Although
his career spanned 25 years, Eisenstein had completed only six
feature films, most of which were communist-inspired propaganda,
approved and supervised by the rigid conditions of the Stalinist
censors. After 1925 and Potemkin, his film projects consisted
mostly of failed ventures that did not amount to fruition. However,
those that were completed, like Ivan the Terrible Parts I &
II, were far more introspective than his earlier spectacles,
October and Alexander Nevsky.
Sergei Eisenstein was born on January 23, 1898, to
Mikail Osipovich and Yulia Ivanovna Eisenstein, both assimilated and
baptised Jews residing in Riga, Tsarist Russia. When his parents
separated in 1905, Sergei remained in Riga and St. Petersburg,
receiving an extensive education and becoming fluent in several
languages, including French, German, and English. An architect and
civil engineer, Sergei's father was adamant that his son be trained
in the same profession; however, Eisenstein's interest was tied into
theatre.
The singular most influential event in Eisenstein's
life was the 1917 October Revolution, an event that held deep
repercussions in the development of his cinematic techniques. Mikail
Eisenstein enlisted in the White Guards; Sergei was accepted into
the Red Army, where he was a civil engineer. Desperate to be
involved in theatre, Eisenstein managed to enter into the Red Army's
propaganda units, boarding trains and traversing across the front to
fiercely-contested areas to film the Revolution and its participants
- peasants, workers, and soldiers loyal to the Bolshevik cause.
In 1922, Lenin revealed to Lunacharsky that, “of all
the arts, for us the cinema was the most important.?Realising the
importance of the film medium's ability to convey communist ideals
and beliefs in a manner that was both informative and manipulative -
in essence, an effective tool in which to incite national fervour -
the Soviet government encouraged the growth of a burgeoning film and
theatre industry. According to director Igor Yutkevich in an
interview in 1966, they were astonishing and wonderful days... the
beginnings of revolutionary art... Our elders had been dispersed
throughout the country, or had perished in the Civil War, or had
left Russia. Hence the Republic lacked a clear organisation, lacked
people; and our way in was easy... the country wanted us to work,
the country needed people in every department of culture.?/P>
Eisenstein enrolled in a theatre group tutored by
the legendary arts director Vsevelod Meyerhold, whose classes
specialised in “biomechanics,?which entailed the application of
decisive stage movement and acrobatics; from here, Sergei was taught
not only the theories of set design, but also stage production,
direction, and acting. After serving on numerous stage productions
as principle designer, including an adaptation of Jack London's
The Mexican, Eisenstein gradually assumed more responsibility
with each presentation, eventually becoming a director. His need for
extravagance and spectacle were limited by the confinements of stage
production; his production of Gas Masks, which he directed
and revolved around proletarians working in a refinery, was moved
outside the theatre and into a gas factory.
In 1924, the Prolekult Theatre presented
Eisenstein, then only 26 years old, the opportunity to direct the
first episode of an eight-part film series Towards the
Dictatorship; Eisenstein's instalment, Strike, proved to
be the only one made. However, its impact on Soviet - and, indeed,
world - cinema would be immeasurable, as it served as the precursor
to perhaps one of the greatest films ever made, Battleship
Potemkin.
An intricate fictional reconstruction of a 1912
factory dispute in Tsarist Russia, Strike is notable for
several reasons; it was Eisenstein's first feature film, and included
revolutionary cinematic techniques that would soon become his
trademarks, in particular, his devastating use of the Kuloshov
‘montage?style and the superimposition of animals as metaphors for
human characteristics. Strike also features a rarity in an
Eisenstein film: a deliberate and merciless stab at ironic humour,
which simply drips venom.
Discordant with work conditions within the factory,
its employees rebel against the hierarchy’s draconian measures, which
include extended work hours for minimum wages; in a particularly
brutal and telling visual parable, an unscrupulous corporate
dictator squeezes juice from an orange - suggesting the old maxim of
drawing blood from a stone.
However, the decision to strike arises when a
proletarian is falsely implicated with the theft of a micrometer.
Humiliated by the accusations of his employers and unable to live
with the stigma of being branded a thief, the worker commits suicide
on the factory floor by hanging himself with his belt. Incensed, the
other workers revolt, assaulting the foremen and causing destruction
to the factory itself; the wheels of industry halt, and the factory
dies.
At first, reaction from the hierarchy is
clandestine: the police and the factory bosses conspire to establish
a network of spies and informers. Agent provocateurs infiltrate the
ranks of the strikers, creating internal upheaval and uncovering the
proletarian leadership. With their leader apprehended, the workers
and their supporters are massacred by police and mounted militia in
a scene that is both stunning and horrific; it should be mentioned
that there are scenes that occur during this carnage which may
offend some people.
Principally, the moments when a militia guard
throws a baby from a multi-storied floor and the horrendously
explicit footage in which a bull is ritually slaughtered at an
abattoir will violate the senses of sensitive viewers. Although
Strike is classified with a PG rating, it is perhaps best to
remember that this film, despite its cultural and socio-political
importance, may not be suitable for children in this age group.
From www.rottentomatoes.com