Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin
Year Released: 1933
Rating: 2.0
It shouldn't be much of a surprise that I find the political motivations of this - and Communist wankery in much of cinema - to be incredibly distasteful, so I'm not even going to go complaining about that again. This story, about a man that leaves Germany to see how the Russians work together - only to take the message home and 'lift up the spirits of the working man' - gives a good hint at something I do find admirable: how the Russians (Lenin especially) felt that film was the greatest of arts, and capable of moving more people than just a basic speech. I like that sentiment - the films weren't designed to be throwaway entertainment, but rather as rallying cries for people to fight, and though I find that ideal to be romantic though antiquated, still wish we lived in world in which many, many films weren't regarded as mostly disposable or made mostly for the purpose of advertising other products and attracting teen audiences (not that I'd want to watch something like this every single night, but I'm hoping you get the idea).
