Customer Reviews

Historical epic of its time - By: Koshmar_61, 06 Apr 2008
Do my eyes deceive me or did reviewers expect to watch this & not see pro-revolutionary content?

This film is unique & stands alonein the history of film-making as the closest thing to a record of one of the most defining momentsin the history of mankind. Not only is it groundbreakingin its mechanics & methodology, but it broke all the mouldsin cinematic history & formed the template for the next 20, 30 years of moviemaking.

Even watching as a non-committed political animal, you have to agree that the drama & tension transmittedin this document is unsurpassed; the transfer of the considerable lands, wealth & assets of Russia from a handful of privileged aristocrats to the people is a story which even the most seasoned narrator could not help but get worked up at. The October Revolution shaped the world for the 20th century, & unwittingly shaped an agrarian sleeping giant into the advanced industrial monolith we see still today. Indeed, were it not for the birth of the (eventual) USSR, Hitler may well have been victoriousin 1941 after all, & picked off North america at will.

See this film for what it is - a fantastic historical document of its time. Forget the rhetoric behind the content, the story of the biggest political eventin history is told well & forged its rightful placein cinematic history.

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Pure agitprop - By: Allan, 19 Jan 2004
If you expect realism, you won't get it. This is pure propaganda, asin The Battleship Potemkin, & not as good. There are several excellent scenes, some totally unbelievable baddies, & an inexplicable ability by the reactionaries to carry on oppressing everybody despite the incredible number of goodies who have rallied to the bolshevik cause.

The plus side is a series of crowd scenes that look forward to Alexander Nevsky, & the real-time slow burn of the wait before storming the Winter Palace.

The picture quality is excellent.

Worth seeing, if you like Eisenstein, but is it worth buying?

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Great DVD, boring movie - By: , 19 Jun 2000
When I started playing this DVD, I was blasted by its amazingly on topic animated menus. I wasn't expecting that from a company that had previously released only static/silent menus. The transfer is good, they use a digitaly remastered version instead of just any old print. The only problem I had was with the movie. It has excellent visuals, but the plot got blurred to my eyesin the middle. Unfortunately, this isnt my type of movie, but this DVD is so great, & the movie so full of classic visuals, I can't bear to give it a mark lower than 3 stars.