STRIKE (1925) B/W 82m dir: Sergei M. Eisenstein

w/Grigory Alexandrov, Maxim Shtraukh, Mikhail Gomorov, Aleksandr P Antonov, Yduif Glizer, I Ivanov, Ivan Klyukvin, Boris Yurtsev

From the Turner Classic Movies website (www.tcm.com), this article about the film by Rob Nixon: "Today, Sergei Eisenstein is known primarily by film scholars and students, and perhaps only vaguely by general audiences who may have a glancing familiarity with his most globally celebrated work, Battleship Potemkin (1925), thanks to its famous Odessa Steps sequence and its numerous imitations and homages in such films as The Untouchables (1987), Woody Allen's Bananas (1971) and Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940). At one time, however, he was one of the most influential filmmakers in the world, due to his theories on editing and composition and the ideological and emotional uses of shot juxtaposition. That statement, of course, is a simplification of Eisenstein's contributions to cinema history, and readers are advised to study further to learn about the director in depth. A good place to start a study of his technical and theoretical innovations would be his first feature film, Strike (1925).

"Many critics and film analysts rank this as one of the greatest debuts by a director, right up there with Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941). Eisenstein spent months researching the project and laying out his shots in minute detail. Much of what he brought to the screen came from his early work as head of Proletcult Theatre, the stage branch of a Soviet cultural movement dedicated to producing ideological works of art in the years after the 1917 revolution. The aim of these theatrical works was to produce a psychological and emotional effect in audiences through 'shocks' that would awaken them to conditions in their lives. This 'theatre of attractions,' as it became known, attempted to raise ideological awareness, what some referred to as 'defamiliarizing the familiar.' Transitioning these ideas to film, Eisenstein conceived of Strike as a series of such shocks in order to make people aware of the exploitation of the working class by the capitalist system.

"In a nutshell, the plot concerns a strike for better working conditions undertaken by workers at a locomotive factory, spurred by the suicide of one worker who had been falsely accused of theft. The factory owners resort to any means necessary to break the workers' resolve, including bringing in spies, provocateurs, and finally the police and military to use deadly force against the strikers and their families, whose initial enthusiasm is worn away by hunger and domestic strife.

"Rejecting any pretext of objectivity, Eisenstein makes his case against the factory owners and their lackeys with a remarkable range of techniques, including double exposures, reflections, distortions, extreme angles, shots through windows and other frames within the film frame, and side-by-side shots that merge into one another, to name just a few. He also makes extensive use of animal imagery, such as the cross-cutting between the slaughter of a cow and the attack by Cossacks against the strikers.

"Strike featured actors from the Proletcult Theatre in a deliberate 'antinaturalistic' style of acting using heightened gesture and movement. Emphasizing the collective over the individual, Eisenstein favors intricately choreographed crowd shots and uses relatively few close-ups of faces. The part of the factory foreman was played by Grigori Aleksandrov, a colleague of Eisenstein's since their days together in Proletcult Theater. He is also listed as a co-writer and assistant director on Strike and assistant director on Eisenstein's October (1928). In the 1930s, Aleksandrov began his own directing career and was the creator of the earliest musical-comedies made in the Soviet Union (under orders from Stalin).

"Because he was a novice filmmaker, Eisenstein would likely not have realized all of his bold ideas without the assistance of cinematographer Eduard Tisse, who collaborated with the director for much of his career. Tisse was the director of cinematography on many of Eisenstein's greatest films, including October and Alexander Nevsky (1938).

"Strike got a tepid reception from audiences and critics, but Eisenstein expanded his techniques and quickly followed up with Battleship Potemkin, which earned him much praise and fame at home and abroad. He would only complete five more feature-length films and a handful of shorts over the course of his career. Like Welles, cinema's other great 'debut,' he suffered numerous financial, political, and health setbacks over the years. He died in 1948 at the age of 50."