Eisenstadt's great film is not so great. Quite a number of itneresting shots and framed set pieces, but the plot and script were close to petrified. Potemkin was more interesting. The evil German Knights pillage and murder, driven out by the heroic good Rus (with a few disreputables trying to cozy up to the Germans). A ridiculous romance tossed in -- I hope for comic relief, but I am not sure. And then there was the translation -- surely someone in the Soviet Union spoke English (the translated subtitles date from the sixties I think). The only positive for the film was that it was an excuse to talk about what it called the Swedish invasion. Vikings came down from the Baltic and set up shop deep inside Rus along the rivers. I have ancestors that got into Russia that way. The contrast with the Dr. Mabus is striking -- equally limited set of characters and space, but a much more interesting movie, any of them I think.
NetFlix turns another one into a film smarty. For the moment.
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