From Dovzhenko to Pudovkin... the propaganda train

Films/DVD Asylum

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I have known about Dovzhenko's "Earth" for decades, but never had a chance to see it. Always considered among the best movies ever made, it also comes with the damning seal of being a tool of vicious propaganda, precenting truth in a particularly distorted way.
I finally had a chance to see it, alongside with Pudovkin's "End of St. Petersburg", made three years earlier, and of course also a propaganda film.
I didn't like the Earth. And not just because its propaganda and outright lies were like a dirty finger stuck in my eye - all that made watching the movie almost a physical torture. I also disliked the too-long shots, that the director was so fond of. While justified in some places, they became a burden quickly, used with no discretion and sense of good taste. Things like this, well, like most artistic masterstrokes, should be used in moderation, to place accents, and this is where Dovzhenko waters down his moonshine, reducing it to a mere baby drink.
You see many wonderful shots, and some of them will linger in your memory, but the overal effect of the work, especially knowing what and how truly happened, is not something I would expect from a great movie.
The End of St. Petersburg is a far more superior film, in my view. Editing is more dynamic, it keeps good pace without becoming bogged down, and while too overloaded with political non-truth, all that is much less irritating in that film, as much more is devoted to the people, their fundamental sufferings and emotions.
If in Erth those feelings stay subserviant to something far bigger, you don't see that juggernaut effect in ehe "End". The film therefore has aged much better than the Earth.

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Topic - From Dovzhenko to Pudovkin... the propaganda train - Victor Khomenko 06:26:32 07/21/05 (3)

And here's what someone who actually knows something about films says. - Donald 07:15:53 07/22/05 (2)

I am sure he does... - Victor Khomenko 07:27:19 07/22/05 (1)

I've only seen Earth, which I quite liked, so I can't compare. -nt- - Donald 07:39:22 07/22/05 (0)

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