October: Ten Days That Shook the World (1928)

With the success of Sergie Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin the Soviet government issues the production that would celebrate the ten year anniversary of the October Revolution that created Soviet Russia as we knew it for most of the twentieth century. Eisenstein would utilize the skills he used in his previous work and expand upon them to produce a film that glorified the rise of socialism in Russia with a form of propaganda that would be criticized as well as hailed by many.

The film takes an interesting look at Russia in 1917 during a time where Russia was living under a provisional government after the overthrowing of the Tsar rule. Depicted is a dramatic recreation of Lenin preaching the beliefs of socialism to an emotionally enthralled audience and the Russian people that would later storm the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, former home Russian Tsar and meeting place for the provisional government in place at the time.

The picture is filmed in a way that is reminiscent of a documentary style to manifest a stirring feeling of realism to the camera as Lenin (Vasili Nikandrov) speaks to the masses and later storms of people barrage the Winter Palace to force communism as the form of government power in creating the USSR. The cinematography was used in a very dramatic way of creating a feeling of power with its militaristic shots, including shots on marching soldiers, close ups of the marching feet, and their guns. The editing was reminiscent of Eisenstein's previous work with Potemkin, with sharp, quick cuts, creating a sense of urgency and drama to the audience. Once again this shows us that this was in fact a film made as a propaganda piece. Also important to note is Eisenstein's use of religious imagery. Intermingled withwith the quick cuts of the film is various images, statues, and figures ranging from the crucifix to Buddha and everything in between. This use of the images gets the audience connected to the idea that all are equal and in seeing what would be your religion portrayed through an item on screen would grab individuals and bring them closer to the core belief of what the film was trying to get across in its communist ideals. The images were also used to yeild a feeling of danger from the source of the provisional government as it was portrayed for a shot as a mechanical peacock, expressing it a big and flashy but cold, hollow, and menacing at the same time, thus clearly stating that it was evil.

October was far from a success when compared to Potemkin. Audiences had a difficult time following the silent picture, and in my humble opinion if it were not for the edited score (which mind you would not have accompanied the original film a silent movie house with a organ player) I too would have been a bit lost. The film jumps forward often and has just a couple characters that you follow throughout, Lenin being the main one which he is there to mainly give the emotional foundation to present the feeling going into the scene. The film is a historical recreation piece and unless you know your history is would be very confusing to follow. Although the film was to manifest a recording of what the real events were like it is known that much of it did not happen the way it is presented on screen, in fact more people were hurt in the recreation of the storming of the White Palace then the actual event itself. There's a fun fact for you.

The film is an interesting look into the minds of the self glorified Soviet Russian government in the world of pre-WWII. We get a look as the famous Winter Palace that was once held as the center of Russia in St. Petersburg, which one can get a wonderful look at in 2002 film Russian Ark (A marvelous history film composed in a single masterfully done shot that lasts over 90 minutes). The film is clearly propoganda driven, but its use of editing techniques was before its time. The movie is a an example of how the cinema was used to sway audiences. Film was clearly a powerful medium that the Russians were eager to use and would one day inspire other to use it as well.