The read
A Balasaur Score of 82 out of 100, drawn from IMDb 7.7/10, Rotten Tomatoes 100%. Critics rate it 23 points higher than audiences do. Number 2 of 2 in its series by score. Streaming on Max.
Synopsis
Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.
Ratings
Critics rate it 23 points higher than audiences do.
232 audience votes
Key crew
- Sergei EisensteinWriter
- Sergei EisensteinDirector
- Sergei ProkofievOriginal Music Composer
Cast
- Nikolai CherkasovCzar Ivan IV
- Lyudmila TselikovskayaCzarina Anastasia Romanovna
- Serafima BirmanBoyarina Efrosinia Staritskaya
- Mikhail NazvanovPrince Andrei Kurbsky
- Mikhail ZharovCzar's Guard Malyuta Skuratov
- Amvrosii BuchmaCzar's Guard Aleksei Basmanov
- Mikhail KuznetsovFyodor Basmanov
- Pavel KadochnikovVladimir Andreyevich Staritsky
- Andrei AbrikosovBoyar Fyodor Kolychev
- Alexander MgebrovNovgorod's Archbishop Pimen
- Maxim MikhaylovArchdeacon
- Vladimir BalashovPiotr Volynetz
