'Ivan the Terrible'

Three hours of a Russian film from the 1940s. I was fearing for the worst.

Instead, I was thoroughly entertained and enthralled.

Ivan the Terrible is a terrific film, I guess one of the first biopics. I loved the actors, the characters, the writing wasn't half bad (despite the Russian translation) and the film as a whole was really good. I'm glad I sat through it.

Russian films are interesting. Since the medium came about, Russia had been a communist country ruled with an iron fist with little leeway for true art with the space to comment on anything. Otherwise, you wind up in a Siberian gulag like Ivan Denisovich.

I'm partially shocked this film -- at least part one -- made it through the censors to be released in 1944 at the very end of World War II and with Josef Stalin still in charge, killing off anyone he didn't like.

It comes as no real surprise that part two was held back for release by the censors 1958. They thought that ol' Ivan resembled Stalin. Interestingly, Stalin admired Ivan's leadership, but he didn't enjoy the many parallels between the two (despite Ivan, apparently, not being overly violent or truly "terrible." He was actually just kind of a hard ass.

As Sergei Eisenstein didn't see the release of part two, part three didn't even make it to film as Eisenstein died leaving the film unfinished. The government took the remains and destroyed them.

What blew my mind about this film is in part two when they jump to the color part with the dancing. I assumed there was some reason and maybe it was significant somehow. Instead, Eisenstein apparently thought the scene would look better in color. And you think directors have this movie thing all figured out?