Alexander Nevsky (1938) on Netflix
NR19381h 52mActionBiographyDrama
Teutonic Knights invade Russia and take Pskov, and Novgorod appeals to Prince Alexander Nevsky to defend the city. Two warriors, Vasili and Gavrilo, court Olga, and Vasilisa takes up arms.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.4/1013,321 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire push into Russia from the west and conquer Pskov, and Novgorod is their next intended target. The boyars and merchants of Novgorod resist the appeal to fight, urged on by the monk Ananias, so the common people turn to Prince Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky and ask him to become their prince and defend the city. He takes charge on the condition that everyone fights for Russia and not for themselves, and an army of peasant volunteers is raised. Two Novgorod warriors, Vasili Buslai and Gavrilo Oleksich, are both courting Olga Danilovna, who promises her hand to whichever of them proves the more valiant. Vasilisa, a Pskov boyar's daughter, puts on a helmet and armor and joins the ranks.
Cast
- Vasili Novikovas Pavsha - Governor of Pskov
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Alexander Nevsky (1938)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Alexander Nevsky was withdrawn from circulation after the USSR signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939, then rapidly returned to Soviet and western screens after the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.
- The half-hour Battle of the Ice was filmed first, in a blazing hot summer outside Moscow; cinematographer Eduard Tisse painted trees light blue, dusted them with chalk, built a horizon of sand and made fake ice from asphalt and glass on pontoons deflated so it shattered on cue.
- The making of Alexander Nevsky ran both ways: some of the film was shot to Sergei Prokofiev's music, and some of Prokofiev's music was composed to Eisenstein's footage, with the composer starting from the film's rough cut.
- The half-hour Battle of the Ice, propelled by Prokofiev's score, has served as a model for epic movie battles ever since, cited alongside Henry V, Spartacus and The Empire Strikes Back.
- The first draft of the Alexander Nevsky script carried swastikas on the invaders' helmets; the film was made during strained Soviet–Nazi relations, and its Teutonic infantry wore helmets resembling World War I Stahlhelms.
