October (1928) review

Eisenstein, given a lot of financial and artistic freedom (except for one thing: eliminate mentions of Trotsky), 'recreates' the Bolshevik Revolution in St. Petersburg, working from John Reed's influential book and not so much from reality. With all that artistic freedom he goes completely wild with his design - sometimes digressing to such a degree that the film slips off track - making the storming of the Winter Palace a massive undertaking, when in reality the Communists went through the side door and the place was taken quite easily by only a fraction of the people. No one ever said artistically accomplished propaganda had to speak absolute truth.