The read
A Balasaur Score of 83 out of 100, drawn from IMDb 7.8/10, Rotten Tomatoes 100%. Critics rate it 22 points higher than audiences do. The highest scoring of the 2 titles in its series. It runs a compact 1h 22m. Streaming on Max.
Synopsis
This is the second part of a projected three-part epic biopic of Russian Czar Ivan Grozny, undertaken by Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein at the behest of Josef Stalin. Production of the epic was stopped before the third part could be filmed, due to producer dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's introducing forbidden experimental filming techniques into the material, more evident in this part than the first part. As it was, this second part was banned from showings until after the deaths of both Eisenstein and Stalin, and a change of attitude by the subsequent heads of the Soviet government. In this part, as Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate him.
Ratings
Critics rate it 22 points higher than audiences do.
177 audience votes
Key crew
- Sergei EisensteinWriter
- Sergei EisensteinDirector
- Sergei ProkofievOriginal Music Composer
Cast
- Nikolai CherkasovCzar Ivan IV
- Serafima BirmanBoyarina Efrosinia Staritskaya
- Pavel KadochnikovVladimir Andreyevich Staritsky
- Mikhail ZharovCzar's Guard Malyuta Skuratov
- Amvrosii BuchmaCzar's Guard Aleksei Basmanov
- Vsevolod PudovkinNikolay the Fanatic
- Mikhail KuznetsovFyodor Basmanov
- Alexander MgebrovNovgorod's Archbishop Pimen
- Andrei AbrikosovArchbishop Philip (formerly Fyodor Kolychev)
- Vladimir BalashovPyotr Volynets
- Erik PyryevIvan IV as a boy
- Mikhail NazvanovPrince Andrei Kurbsky
