Alexander Nevsky

Alexander Nevsky (1938) starring a cast of Russians from the 1930s. Leonard Maltin calls this movie a masterpiece, but he is way off the mark. The DVD is terrible. It is not indexed, so you can't stop the film to take a break without losing your place. It's in Russian with English subtitles, and the subtitles are illegible about half the time. The sound quality is terrible, and the black-and-white picture is not much better. The plot concerns a Russian effort in the 13th century to repel an invasion by Teutonic (German) knights, an odd parallel considering what was about to happen in Europe at the time the film was made. The movie is hyper-patriotic on behalf of Russia. The acting is so-so, and the script is quite clumsy. It was not an enjoyable viewing experience. Grade: D