Aleksandr Nevskiy + Andrei Rublev

I always thought that Andrei Rublev was more a reflection about art and religion than an epic.

Alexander Nevsky is a great epic.

- Who is God ?
- When you close your eyes and make a wish, God is the one who doesn't care about.

I don't think the two are very much alike, aside from being personally driven Russian epics regarding figures who are Saint-like. I probably rank the films on the same level, it's hard for me to say. As much as both films are cherished and considered grand masterpieces, I think they're also imperfect in some small ways. With Nevsky, Eisenstein has a main character who has almost no real dimension aside from 'I'm Nevsky, I'll save you all'. With Rublev, this is a similar thing done for its title character, but not exactly- Rublev to me is slightly for dimensioned through his travels along his long route, and especially with the guy who rouses everyone to make the bell, in a few of those scenes I saw more dimension to Rublev than before. On the other hand, I think that Eisenstein's film, while over an hour shorter than Tarkovsky's film, has the stronger punch of epic filmmaking- it's a piece that anyone, be they in the art-house world or in Hollywood, should see just to get a sense of how to do large scale battles and get big crowds. I'd rank that whole battle on the ice sequence in my top list of favorite battles. Tarkovsky, while also working on an epic scope, to me is much better in the 'intimate' scenes, or rather the ones that don't require big crowds. There is some poetry to his work, like with the 'pagans' running nude or the burning of the town, but his great strengths come in a scene with just a few people, like with the Jester or in some of the smaller scenes with Rublev and his mery band of art-followers.

I'd say in the sense of just a pure epic, I might go with Eisenstein. But as just an overall film in how its message is put forward, I might go with Tarkovsky. But even on that front I'm still conflicted- for me, both filmmakers are pushing a kind of propoganda too, Eisenstein's being that of 'stop the German hordes, Russia is the greatest thing since sliced bread and must be preserved from the Christian barbarians', and Tarkovsky's being 'Jesus is great, so great that there must be soul in art, and lots of soul.' Both films have memorable sequences, and the one with Tarkovsky's that strikes me the most- aside from the Bell sequence- is the finale, which like Eistenstein's battle on the ice works best without any dialog. On terms of sheer entertainment value, I'd go with Alexander Nevsky (as I also said in my review, a good lot of it reminds me of it being like a grandfather to the Lord of the Rings in scale and scope), but for redeeming art-film value, I'd go with Andrei Rublev. It's a toss up, is what I'm trying to say, and on both sides I could find pros and (minor) cons that could go on for far too long to fit into one post. I can understand though why Tarkovsky would want to try and make his own epic to 'answer' Eisenstein's film too.


"Watch out, he's got a candy cane!"