This celebration of the Russian Revolution, commissioned for its
tenth anniversary, is perhaps the most precise demonstration of
Eisenstein's strengths and limitations. It certainly contains some
of his most innovative experiments with montage as a vehicle for
outlandish metaphor and political commentary. But the creativity is
channelled into heavy-handed propaganda, while the moments of pathos
are too calculated to disturb the mood of martial triumphalism and
Eisenstein's style of perpetual crescendo. Still, for all the resort
to simplification and caricature, it remains thunderous viewing,
especially when accompanied by Shostakovich's exceptional score.
