Strike

this was the first film in the soviet montage movement and the most important as it started the whole movement. this was a time in the soviet union when the revolution had just ended and things were looking up in russia thanks to leaders such as Vladimir lenin.

Eisenstein's editing

eisenstein uses intellectual montage editing throughout his film and strike is no exception. he uses two juxtaposing shots that together hold a different meaning.

an example of this is when the cow is executed to represent the execution of the final strike leader. this is interspersed with shots of the final people. of the resistance being slaughtered,

eisenstein also uses juxtaposing images to make the audience feel specific emotions

examples of this include cutting to a shot of children playing with cuts then back to the main protagonists of the film being slaughtered.

this allows the viewer to remain emotional at the death and not to be desensitized to it.

he was the father of collision montage.

context

this film was made after the revolution but set before it and is made to be a reminder to the people of the soviet union of what their ancestors did and lost for what they have today.

It highlight the level of corruption in the soviet union and demonstrates how deep it runs in society. this emphasizes to viewers the need to ensure that they never fall into this sort situation again where the country is run by the few and not the many.

key scene examples

narrative

this story follows the organizers and leaders of a workers strike in the ussr. they are then chased down by the fascist leaders of the mass factories that they work in.

these fascist members of the russian elite are presented as fat greedy and unhealthy pigs who can also be stupid.

this film is a direct attack on this former way of life in the ussr and is adapted to try and remind people what life used to be like and not to take anything for granted.

these fascist pigs hire spies to hunt down the strike leaders. these spies have animal code names like monkey. fox and owl.

with the help of the lowest form of scum in the ussr they track down the strike leaders one by one.

this strike is brought in by a co workers suicide.

this film is about the bolshevik revolution.

in one scene when the police are trying to bribe a strike leder to rat on his fellow strike leader.

in the scene where the final strike eader is slaughtered we see him taken away and then a cow being slaughtered.

this then cuts between the cow and the mass murder if the workers in the field.

in this scene we see a load of abstract imagery including dwarfs dancing on a table and the drinking of champagne. this all adds up to tell the story in a unique was.

another key scene which shows how deep the corruption and patriarchy runs.

then the strike leaders call for the fire brigade to help them they actually attack them. this is a shock as the firte service is seen as the most loyer straight shooting good guys there are.

film making context.

sergei eisenstein made films about that promote the proletariats ideology to politics. the proletariat overthrow the controlling bourgeoisie and the tsar in the russian revolution.

this movement was led by lenin. cinema was an important medium when it came to sharing messages to the masses through artists like eisenstein

this film is an example of soviet montage film. this refers to the intellectual use of editing to create new meaning which are often politically motivated.

click to edit

silent film was the earliest form of filmmaking.

it was started by the lumiere brothers and developed rapidly after the first video cameras were invented.

in just 20 years it went from videos of trains coming into stations to full feature length films and comedies

examples of other soviet montage filmmakers.

lev kuleshov

founder of the kuleshov effect where as you can cut between a plain faced actor and something to give the plain face some sort of emotion

for example cutting between a plain face and food would make the actor look hungry. cutting between him and a coffin would make him seem sad and cutting between him and a naked woman would make him seem like a dirty pervert.

another important filmmaker of this period was vsevolod pudovkin.

pudovkin was very influential in bringing these political meanings to a forefront alongside eisenstein. he created other famous films like mother and storm over asia.

the montage of attractions

use of the kuleshov effect in a more advanced level.

created by eisenstein it is where the collision of two seperate images can create a new unoiversal meaning because of the juxtaposition between them.