Impenetrable and Onanistic

[Ya Sam]

Eisenstein's "Alexander Nevsky," a
>glorification of Stalin.
>

I think you're confusing it with 'Ivan the Terrible'. There is nothing which 
glorifies Stalin in 'Alexander Nevsky'. This film depicting the victory of 
medieval Russian warriors over Teutonic knights under the guidance of prince 
Alexander (a historical fact) is a patriotic film of sorts which of course 
seeks to establish some connection between 'the glorious past' and the 
Soviet state circa 1930s, but there is hardly any attempt to valorise Stalin 
himself. It is even ironic that the film was made in 1938, whereas in 1937 
most of the Soviet war leaders, the heroes of the Civil War who could have 
been symbolised by Alexander (no, he doesn't symbolise Stalin, Ivan the 
Terrible does) were executed as the enemies of the state.
But even with 'Ivan the Terrible' Eisenstein was taking a great risk by 
explicitly hinting at Ivan the Terrible's homosexuality, taking into account 
the fact, that Stalin considered the latter to be his 'teacher'. Moreover, 
although the first part of this film was welcomed by Stalin, the second one, 
in which Ivan is revealed as an excessively cruel and paranoid dictator, was 
in fact banned and was premiered only after Stalin's death in 1958.

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