Ivan the Terrible-1944

Ivan The Terrible (written Иван Грозный in Russian, pronounced Ivan Groznyy) is a two-part historical epic film about Ivan IV of Russia. During World War II, with the German army approaching Moscow, Stalin wanted Eisenstein to undertake a film on nationalistic subject. With the success of Alexander Nevsky behind him the subject was in a manner of speaking was chosen for him. Joseph Stalin admired the first Tsar, seeing him as the same kind of brilliant, decisive, successful leader that Stalin aspired to be. Russian director Sergei Eisenstein conceived as a triology, but Eisenstein died before filming of the third part could be finished.
Part 1 was released in 1944 but Part 2 was not released until 1958 due to political censorship.
Part I begins with Ivan's coronation as Tsar of all the Russias, amid grumbling from the boyars. Ivan makes a speech proclaiming his intent to unite and protect Russia against the foreign armies outside her borders and the enemies within. Shortly after, the scene changes to Ivan's wedding celebration in which he marries Anastasia Romanovna. This causes him to lose the friendship of his two best friends, Prince Andrei Kurbsky and Fyodor Kolychev. The latter receives Ivan's permission to retire to a monastery, while Kurbsky attempts to resume his romance with the Tsarina, who repels his advances.
The marriage feast is interrupted by news of the burning of several boyar palaces, carried into the Tsar's palace by a mob of the common people and a war with Kazan.

The city of Kazan falls to the Russian army.

During his return from Kazan, Ivan falls seriously ill and is thought to be on his deathbed; the court intrigue begins to work. Ivan’s aunt Efrosinia Staritska wants the people to swear allegiance to her son, Vladimir the "boyar tsar" instead of the infant Dmitri, Tsar’s choice. Kurbsky is uncertain of his own loyalty, trying to decide between the two sides. However, when the Tsarina says, "Do not bury a man before he is dead," Kurbsky realizes that Ivan is still alive, and hurriedly swears his allegiance to Ivan's infant son, Dmitri.
The Tsarina now falls ill, and while Ivan is receiving bad news from all fronts, the boyars plot to kill her. Efrosinia comes into the palace with a cup of wine hidden in her robes, in which she has put poison. Just as the royal couple receives word that Kurbsky has defected to the Livonians, Efrosinia slips the cup of wine into the room and listens from behind a wall. The Tsarina has a convulsion and Ivan, looking around for a drink to calm her, takes the poisoned wine and gives it to her.

The scene changes to show the dead Tsarina lying in state in the cathedral, with Ivan mourning beside her bier. While a monk reads biblical verses over the body, Ivan questions his own justifications and ability to rule, wondering if his wife's death is God's punishment on him. However, he pulls himself out of it, and sends for Kolychev. At this point, Alexei Basmanov arrives, suggesting that Ivan surround himself with men he can trust - "iron men," the Oprichnina - and offers his (rather startled) son, Fyodor, for service. Ivan accepts, and sets about recouping his losses. He abdicates and leaves Moscow, waiting until the people beg him to return, saying that he now rules with absolute power by the will of the people.

Part 2

Part II picks up where Part I left off, at Ivan's return to Moscow. He begins by reforming the land distribution: he takes the boyars' lands, then reinstalls them as managers, increasing his own power at their expense. His friend, Kolychev, arrives, now the monk Philip; after a heated debate, Philip agrees to become metropolitan of Moscow, if Ivan gives him the right to intercede for condemned men. This is mutually agreed upon. But as soon as it is settled, Ivan, propelled by Malyuta, finds a way around this: he executes condemned men quickly, before Philip can use his right. In this way he has three of Philip's kinsmen executed.

Fyodor Basmanov, the first of the Oprichnina, helps Ivan figure out that the Tsarina was poisoned, and both suspect Efrosinia of poisoning the cup of wine. Ivan orders Fyodor not to say anything about it until he (Ivan) is certain beyond doubt of her guilt.

The boyars, close to desperation, plead their case to Philip and eventually win him over. He vows to block Ivan's abuse of power, and confronts him in the cathedral while a miracle play is being presented. As the argument heats up, Ivan, angry, proclaims that he will be exactly what the boyars call him - terrible - and has Philip seized. The boyars now decide that their only option is to assassinate Ivan, and the novice Pyotr is selected to wield the knife.

Ivan, now certain of Efrosinia's guilt, invites Vladimir to a banquet with the Oprichnina. Ivan gets Vladimir drunk while the Oprichnina sing and dance around them; Vladimir mentions that there is a plot to kill Ivan, and he (Vladimir) is to replace him as Tsar. Fyodor Basmanov notices the assassin leaving, and signals Ivan, who, pretending surprise at Vladimir's revelation, suggests Vladimir try being Tsar for a while, and has the Oprichnina bring throne, orb, scepter, crown and royal robes, and they all bow down to "Tsar Vladimir." Then Ivan tells Vladimir to lead them to the cathedral in prayer, as a Tsar should lead. Hesitantly, Vladimir does.

In the cathedral, the assassin runs up and stabs the mock Tsar, and is immediately seized by the Basmanovs. Ivan orders them to release Pyotr, and thanks him for killing the tsar's worst enemy. Efrosinia arrives, jubilant at the apparent death of Ivan, until she sees Ivan alive; rolling the corpse over, she realizes it is her own son. Ivan sentences her and then relaxes, proclaiming that all his enemies within Moscow are vanquished and he can turn to those outside.
Parallels drawn between Stalin and Ivan the terrible agree since struggle for power or establishing central authority over various power centres are as old as the first man who founded a city. Echoes of Tsarist Russia of the sixteenth century and Russia of the 20th century are about the same issues. Kulaks whom Stalin liquidated in the 30s were a thorn on his side as Boyars was to Ivan. Eisenstein may have presented a truthful examination of the life of Ivan the Terrible as cinematic art would allow and it so happened that Stalin found some parallels pleasing while other that he found troublesome. (Eisenstein was forced to offer the most abject of apologies: “The sense of historical truth was betrayed by me in the second part of Ivan.”)


One may either love or hate the film as one may respond to an opera. The style of acting is like that in silent film and, also as in opera gestures and expressions are exaggerated. Prokofiev's music heightens the emotional intensity. Some will find the highly stylized quality of this film annoying. Here we see Eisenstein’s visual vocabulary has come of age that for a student of film something to learn from. Ivan the Terrible has been voted onto several lists of the top ten films ever and at least one list of the worst fifty!
Cast:
Nikolai Cherkasov ... Czar Ivan IV
Lyudmila Tselikovskaya ... Czarina Anastasia Romanovna
Serafima Birman ... Boyarina Efrosinia Staritskaya
Mikhail Nazvanov ... Prince Andrei Kurbsky
Mikhail Zharov ... Czar's Guard Malyuta Skuratov
Amvrosi Buchma ... Czar's Guard Aleksei Basmanov
Mikhail Kuznetsov ... Fyodor Basmanov
Pavel Kadochnikov ... Vladimir Andreyevich Staritsky
Andrei Abrikosov ... Boyar Fyodor Kolychev
Aleksandr Mgebrov ... Novgorod's Archbishop Pimen
Maksim Mikhajlov ... Archdeacon
Vsevolod Pudovkin ... Nikola, Simpleton Beggar
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