Ivan the Terrible, Part I

I'm not sure that I would have been able to peg this film as Eisenstein's if I didn't know he directed it, but I did notice some similarities between Ivan the Terrible Part I and Battleship Potemkin. First of all, Eisenstein make a good use of shadows in this film just like he did in Battleship Potemkin. We often see the shadow of a person coming before we see the actual person, especially towards the end. There are also a few shots where the camera is fixed on a shadow, either of the globe or of Ivan's face. I also noticed that towards the end of the film when all of the people are walking towards Ivan when he is standing on the hill, Eisenstein made the line of people very thin so that it looks like it goes on forever. This reminded me of the line of people on their way to the funeral in Battleship Potemkin.

I can also see the influence that Japanese Kabuki theater had on Eisenstein's style. It is especially easy to see this style in the scene when Ivan gets out of his death bed and is stumbling around. All of his motions are very exaggerated. Also, all of the actors wore very extravagant clothing, which is common in Kabuki theater.

Ivan does seem to be similar to Stalin in that he wants to have every aspect of the country under his complete control. He does not seem to have the same paranoid attitude that Stalin did (or maybe it only seems that way to me because we've only seen the first part), but he definitely wants to be in control and has no problem eliminating a few people to keep his power.

I don't think that the Boyars were necessarily villains. You really can't blame them for hating Ivan because he wanted to take their land and all of their power.