Very few of Sergey Eisenstein's works appealed to me. However I did enjoy Ivan the Terrible the most. It may be of some interest to highlight that Part II of this film was banned by Stalin, because it contained political elements which showed not just a power struggle, but the Tsar's use of secret police. Ivan's own means of terror as depicted in this work very much resembled Stalin. This second part was never completed, nor was it shown to the Soviet audience until a few years after Stalin died. Stalin refused to give permission for Part III to be made.
One fascinating detail about this unique movie is that Eisenstein was provided with experimental color film from Germany, which he incorporated towards the end of the movie, which featured scenes of a banquet. The final scenes revert to B/W.
Another production - Alexander Nevsky is said to be made as an expression of Soviet propaganda, which carried a message direct to Hitler in 1939, highlighting the hazards of invading Soviet territory. The use of a frozen landscape in the battle scenes are direct inferences to the dangers the enemy (Teutonic knights in this case) faced when attacking their enemy. Prokofiev's musical score is quite haunting.
IMHO The Battleship Potemkin is pure revolutionary propaganda. This movie portrayed too many historic inaccuracies such as the famous massacre scene over the Odessa steps. Lenin endorsed this movie in 1925, which was made to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Potemkin Uprising. It provided visual 'proof' of how the enlisted sailors were justified in murdering the Tsarist Officer Command, on the pretext of the inadequacy of their rations which is depicted by the crawling maggot scene.
Eisenstein may have been considered as an innovative genius filmaker, however it was his use of this medium as a sponsored communistic propaganda tool which is the core to all his productions.
