Ivan the Terrible

This Eisenstein film was unlike the previous film we watched of his in several aspects. Ivan the Terrible was set in the 1500s while Battleship Potemkin was set in the early 1900s. Battleship Potemkin was a silent film while Ivan the Terrible had sound. I am not good at detecting a director’s specific style so if I hadn’t known Eisenstein had directed Ivan the Terrible I doubt I would’ve noticed. The one similarity between the two films I notice is short shot length and the characters actions help enhance what is going on even though it is a film with sound. From my perspective it didn’t seem like much of a Socialist Realist film. I understand Part II is even less Socialist Realist but it seemed Eisenstein was taking a shot at Stalin being an evil dictator, from the title of the film to how Ivan was potrayed throughout the film. Ivan seems to be the brutal dictator who will do anything to seize more power and he enjoys the power. He is a very charismatic speaker but his weakness seems to be his lack of effective strategy. He seems very similar to Stalin. Stalin was charismatic but had no history of military. Stalin loves his power and is all about the propaganda.