History Film / IvanTheTerrible

This highly stylized two-part film chronicles the Rise of Ivan from a Prince henpecked by the Boyars, feudal nobleman, to a Czar who will unite Russia into a Kingdom. Part 1 chronicles the Prince's marriage, his benign and happy early years, his wars in the Kazan, personal tragedy and eventual rise. Part 2 shows the Prince preparing to stave off the Boyars from making a resurgence, establishing his special secret police, the Oprichniki, and finally embracing his destiny to be ''Groznyy'' (''Terrible'').

Eisenstein concieved of the film as a trilogy, yet only two parts were finished, with Part III being cancelled in mid-production, followed by Eisenstein's death a brief while later. Part I released in 1944 earned the director the Stalin Prize (Soviet Nobel Prize-cum-Oscar) and was well recieved internationally. The second part, shot back-to-back with the first one, was completed in 1946. However it was shelved, and it was released only in 1958 long after Eisenstein's and Stalin's death. Part II became especially famous for its color sequence (shot on Agfacolor film stock captured by Red Army troops from the Nazis).

** Eisenstein concieved the film as a historical film in the tradition of Shakespeare's history plays (also propaganda for the Tudor and Jacobean monarchs) and so deliberately modelled the film on ''Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth''.

Eisenstein concieved of the film as a trilogy, yet only two parts were finished, with Part III being cancelled in mid-production, followed by Eisenstein's death a brief while later. Part I released in 1944 earned the director the Stalin Prize (Soviet Nobel Prize-cum-Oscar) and was well recieved internationally. The second part, shot back-to-back with the first one, was completed in 1946. However it was shelved, and it was released only in 1958 long after Eisenstein's and Stalin's death. Part II became especially famous for its color sequence (shot on Agfacolor film stock stolen by Red Army troops from the Nazis).

It is regarded as a classic of Soviet/Russian and world cinema and is available on Creator/TheCriterionCollection.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: While fighting against insidious, immoral, and corrupt boyars, the tsar slowly descends into brutality, paranoia and outright madness. Most notably in Part II, Ivan IV gives a MotiveRant as to why he hates the Boyas, noting that as a child they separated him from his mother. At the end of that, Ivan IV kills Vladmir in front of his mother Efrosinia. Film historians, noting the subtext and the Freudian themes in the film, suggest that this was part of the film's critique. [[FullCircleRevolution Ivan IV is a populist monarchs who appeals to the people rather than the nobleman, but he ends up becoming the tyrant he had opposed to start with]], noting that this was part of Eisenstein's SelfDeprecation on the entire Soviet generation.

This highly stylized two-part film chronicles the Rise of Ivan from a Prince henpecked by the Boyars, feudal nobleman, to a Czar who will unite Russia into a Kingdom. Part 1 chronicles the Prince's marriage, his benign and happy early years, his wars in the Kazan, personal tragedy and eventual rise. Part 2 shows the Prince preparing to stave off the Boyars from making a resurgence, establishing his special secret police, the Oprichniki, and finally embracing his destiny to be ''Groznyy''(''Terrible'').

* BlackAndGreyMorality: The boyars are a wicked and callous lot, but Ivan the Terrible is no angel, either. This makes it, ironically the most balanced of Eisenstein's films.

* TheChessmaster + ManipulativeBastard: Both Ivan and his [[BigBad nemesis]] Efrosinia Staritskaya. ("Yevrosinya"; your subtitles may vary)

* DragQueen + CreepyCrossdresser: Feodor Basmanov. Yes. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tcPBx3O_H4&spfreload=10 In a 1945 Soviet Movie]].

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: While fighting against insidious, immoral, and corrupt boyars, the tsar slowly descends into brutality, paranoia and outright madness. Most notably in Part II, Ivan IV gives a MotiveRant as to why he hates the Boyas, noting that as a child they separated him from his mother. At the end of that, Ivan IV kills Vladmir in front of his mother Efrosinia.
** Film historians, noting the subtext and the Freudian themes in the film, suggest that this was part of the film's critique. [[FullCircleRevolution Ivan IV is a populist monarchs who appeals to the people rather than the nobleman, but he ends up becoming the tyrant he had opposed to start with]], noting that this was part of Eisenstein's SelfDeprecation on the entire Soviet generation.

* NameDrop: Averted (in Part 1)--nobody calls Ivan "the Terrible".
** Then played ''totally'' straight in part 2, when Ivan [[ChewingTheScenery declares, quite melodramatically]], that
--> "Henceforth, I shall be as you name me! I shall be...'''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Ivan the Terrible!!"]]'''
* NecessarilyEvil + IDidWhatIHadToDo: The Oprichnina terror campaign.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: To RealLife, paralleling Russia's suffering in the time of Ivan the Terrible with its suffering in the UsefulNotes/GreatPatrioticWar.

* DragQueen + CreepyCrossdresser: Feodor Basmanov. Yes. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asLpJY77qHg In a 1945 Soviet Movie]].

* FreudWasRight: [[invoked]] Eisenstein who was deeply interested in UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud and psychology, layered the entire film with subtext and visual cues to this effect. Stalin was not amused with his hero being made into a "Hamlet type" in Part II with the childhood flashback given by Eisenstein.

* AdaptationDistillation: Malyuta, Ivan's SideKick, chief of Oprichnina is a Peasant who wants to execute aristocrats. That trope easily fits the Movie format. History!Malyuta was a low-rank aristo who resented high rank aristoes, explaining the SideKick's character arc would have taken too long.

* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Everybody sticks a highly stylized language with a veneer of antiquity that has little to do with actual Old Russian.

'''''Ivan the Terrible''''' (Russian ''Иван Грозный, Ivan Groznyy'') was Creator/SergeiEisenstein's second (and last) sound film. A SpiritualSuccessor to ''Film/AlexanderNevsky''. Made during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, with the support and help of UsefulNotes/JosefStalin, whose personality-cult invoked Ivan IV, who was in any case a popular monarch in UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}.

* FreudWasRight: Eisenstein who was deeply interested in UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud and psychology, layered the entire film with subtext and visual cues to this effect.

* AdaptationDistillation: Malyuta, Ivan's SideKick, chief of Oprichnina is a Peasant who wants to execute arisitocrats. That trope easily fits the Movie format. History!Malyuta was a low-rank aristo who resented high rank aristoes, explaining the SideKick's character arc would have taken too long.
* AntiHero: You know who.
* AristocratsAreEvil: All of them, save for the Tsar (hopefully) and Anastasia Glinskaia, Ivan's bride and MoralityPet.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: The boyars are a wicked and callous lot, but Ivan the Terrible is no angel, either. Which probably makes it ironically the most accurate of Eisenstein's films.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: While fighting against insidious, immoral, and corrupt boyars, the tsar slowly descends into brutality, paranoia and outright madness.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The film glosses over most of Ivan's failures and vices, presenting him as a heroic personality (at least, in Part I). However, Part II makes Ivan look like a sociopath, and even Part I has a [[TakeThat seething critique]] lurking riiiight under the surface.
* HollywoodHistory: The movie takes many, many liberties with history. For instance, most of Ivan the Terrible's opponents are [[CompositeCharacter conflated]] into Eufrosinia Staritskaya and her son. In reality, Ivan the Terrible had seven wives; only one is shown in the film. Many events from his life are omitted or rearranged in sequence, etc. All this was done to present him as an unambiguously positive figure, a direct predecessor of [[JosefStalin the film's sponsor]].

* LonelyAtTheTop: The entire premise of the movie.

* SanitySlippage: In the second movie, Ivan slowly descends into madness and wickedness.

'''''Ivan the Terrible''''' (Russian ''Иван Грозный, Ivan Groznyy'') was Creator/SergeiEisenstein's second (and last) sound film, a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Film/AlexanderNevsky''. Made under direct supervision of [[JosefStalin Joseph the Terrible]], who [[DracoInLeatherPants idolized]] Ivan IV and [[ExecutiveMeddling personally intervened]] in the movie's production.

The first film of the projected trilogy was released in 1944, to critical applause; the director was awarded the Stalin Prize (Soviet Nobel Prize-cum-Oscar). The reasons for critical success were [[OscarBait pretty obvious]]: the movie presented Ivan the Terrible, a controversial and polarizing figure at the very least, as a national hero who bravely fought external and internal enemies in his quest to unite Russian lands.

The second part, shot back-to-back with the first one, was completed in 1946 (with some sequences filmed in color) but released only in 1958, five years after Stalin's death. The reasons were also very clear: It dealt with the dark side of the tsar's personality, and depicted his Oprichnina [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything terror campaign]] as NecessarilyEvil - but evil nonetheless. After having been shown the completed Part II in a private screening, Stalin flew into a rage, calling it a "horror of a film" and threatening to "take care" of its creators. The movie was shelved, the director fired, and production of the third part cancelled. The third film exists only as a script, a series of sketches, and several filmed scenes first shown to the general public in 1988.

Despite the fact that the movie [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny hasn't aged well]], it is regarded as a classic of Soviet/Russian and world cinema.

* [[strike:[[HollywoodHistory Hollywood]]]] [[HollywoodHistory Mosfilm History]]: The movie takes many, many liberties with history. For instance, most of Ivan the Terrible's opponents are [[CompositeCharacter conflated]] into Eufrosinia Staritskaya and her son. In reality, Ivan the Terrible had seven wives; only one is shown in the film. Many events from his life are omitted or rearranged in sequence, etc. All this was done to present him as an unambiguously positive figure, a direct predecessor of [[JosefStalin the film's sponsor]].

* [[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe Ye Old Butcherede]] [[strike:[[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe Englishe]]]] [[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe Russhyanne]]: Everybody sticks a highly stylized language with a veneer of antiquity that has little to do with actual Old Russian.

** "We've beaten you, Germans-Livonians! [[ColdWar The time will come when you shall submit to Muscovy]]."

* DawsonCasting: Nikolay Cherkasov, 41, as Ivan the Terrible, 17 to mid-thirties.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Two words: JosefStalin. (Considering the fallout from the second film, ExecutiveMeddling from beyond the grave.)

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The third film was cancelled after Stalin was not amused by the second one.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: To RealLife, paralleling Russia's suffering in the time of Ivan the Terrible with its suffering in the GreatPatrioticWar.

The second part, shot back-to-back with the first one, was released only in 1958, five years after Stalin's death. The reasons were also very clear: It dealt with the dark side of the tsar's personality, and depicted his Oprichnina [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything terror campaign]] as NecessarilyEvil - but evil nonetheless. After having been shown the completed Part II in a private screening, Stalin flew into a rage, calling it a "horror of a film" and threatening to "take care" of its creators. The movie was shelved, the director fired, and production of the third part cancelled. The third film exists only as a script, a series of sketches, and several filmed scenes first shown to the general public in 1988.

'''''Ivan the Terrible''''' (Russian ''Иван Грозный, Ivan Groznyy'') was Creator/SergeiEisenstein's second (and last) sound film, a spiritual successor to ''Film/AlexanderNevsky''. Made under direct supervision of [[JosefStalin Joseph the Terrible]], who [[DracoInLeatherPants idolized]] Ivan IV and [[ExecutiveMeddling personally intervened]] in the movie's production.

* DragQueen + CreepyCrossdresser: Feodor Basmanov. Yep, your heard that right. In a 1945 Soviet movie. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asLpJY77qHg I am so totally not making this up]].

* ExecutiveMeddling: Two words: JosefStalin.
** Considering the fallout from the second film, ExecutiveMeddling from beyond the grave.

* LostInTranslation: Ivan's sobriquet, "Groznyi", really means more "Fearsome" than "Terrible"--but the modern English connotation of the word makes it sounds like, say, Pope John XII (AKA "Pope John the Bad")
** YMMV, but it certainly fits the "Inspiring Terror" meaning of it, which-while its' been out of style for quite a bit- *has* been making a comeback.

* BadassBeard: [[http://pixhost.info/avaxhome/04/91/000a9104_medium.jpeg Ivan's beard defies gravity. And boyars.]]

* CrapsackWorld: Medieval Russia seems to be a really, really, REALLY nasty place to live.

* DragQueen + VillainousCrossdresser: Feodor Basmanov. Yep, your heard that right. In a 1945 Soviet movie. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asLpJY77qHg I am so totally not making this up]].

* TheChessmaster + ManipulativeBastard: Both Ivan and his [[BigBad nemesis]] Efrosinia Staritskaya. ("Yevrosinya", YourSubtitlesMayVary)

Judging from many historical accounts, TruthInTelevision.

* NotableOriginalMusic: The SergeiProkofiev score.

* FoeYay: Ivan and Vladimir Staritsky, particularly in the second movie.

* HoYay: Ivan and Fedor Basmanov the Cross-Dressing Oprichnik. TruthInTelevision, as rumours of a "sodomic liaison" between the two were spread by the tsar's enemies and sorta confirmed by Ivan himself.