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Alexander Nevsky: Difference between revisions

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Alexander Nevsky (view source)

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* [[Action Girl]]: Vasilisa of Pskov. She avenges her father's death by gearing up and taking to the battlefield. Contrary to another trope, one of the other heroes [[No Guy Wants an Amazon|actively pursues the amazon]].
* [[All Germans Are Nazis]]: And this was ''before'' World War II.
* [[Aristocrats Are Evil]]: Novgorod boyars are depicted as a corrupt and cowardly lot, willing to sell out the city to the enemies. Prince Alexander is an exception—mainlyexception -- mainly because, in the movie, he is portrayed as a hero of the common folk.
* [[Badass Beard]]: Alexander, and, what the heck, almost the entire Russian army. The Teutonic Knights are all clean-shaven, which is a [[Did Not Do the Research|departure from history]]: their rule ''required'' them to sport a [[Beard of Evil]].
* [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]: A variation of the phrase "all who draw the sword will die by the sword", tends to be attributed to Alexander since it appears in the movie. In reality, there is no mention of him ever saying it in public, and the phrase is actually attributed to [[Jesus]].
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* [[Corrupt Church]]: The hideously withered archbishop and the black monk Grigory wish to subject the Russian people to [[The Pope]], while the Russian monk [[Meaningful Name|Ananias]] is willing to betray the people of Novgorod to [[The Teutonic Knights]].
* [[Church Militant]]: "There is one God in Heaven, and one servant of God on Earth. Everything that does not bow before Rome shall [[Kill It with Fire|be put to death]]".
* [[Dawson Casting]]: 35-year old Nikolay Cherkasov, a superstar of Stalin-era Soviet cinema, was cast as the title character—whocharacter -- who was 22 at the time of the battle. Due to [[Popcultural Osmosis]] (see below), most Russian people think that the prince was in his 30's when he fought the battle.
* [[Doomed Moral Victor]]: The mayor of Pskov at the beginning of the film.
* [[Dressing as the Enemy]]: Vasiliy pulls this off [[Up to Eleven|in the middle of the battle]].
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* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: The film features a Russian Orthodox saint as a protagonist, presents mediaeval Russia in a positive light, and glorifies non-Communist Russian patriotism. All these things were looked down upon by Soviet authorities, yet Eisenstein got away with it.
** Eisenstein even smuggled in a friggin' [[The Bible|Biblical]] quote! At the end of the movie, Alexander says: "He who comes to us with a sword, shall die by the sword". It's a paraphrase of Matthew 26:52.
* [[Good Republic, Evil Empire]]: Novgorod at its height was a feudal republic with the prince being elected by the city council, severely limited in power and mostly just a figurehead—unlessfigurehead -- unless there was an imminent military threat. By contrast, the Knights were vassals of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], and the Mongols... You get the idea.
* [[Historical Hero Upgrade]]: Prince Alexander was a very shrewd politician who spent most of his life feuding with other Russian princes. The film—followingfilm -- following a [[Older Than They Think|tradition]] much older than Stalinism—focusesStalinism -- focuses on his younger years and his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
* <s>[[Hollywood Tactics|Hollywood]]</s> [[Hollywood Tactics|Mosfilm Tactics]]: Some instances, but the writers tried to follow the course of the battle as described by Old Russian chronicles.
* [[In Its Hour of Need]]: The prince personally leads his army into a battle against overwhelming odds.
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* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]: Not only does Prince Alexander lead the Russian troops, but when we first see him in the film, he is among a number of fishermen setting their nets.
* [[Scenery Gorn]]: The frozen lake, strewn with bodies of fallen warriors. Oh, and the Mongol-induced devastation at the beginning.
* [[Sidekick|Sidekicks]]s: Alexander has two, [[Reckless Sidekick|Vasiliy]] [[Plucky Comic Relief|Buslay]] and [[Warrior Poet|Gavrilo Oleksich]].
* [[Shout-Out]]: The film has been cited in a number of subsequent fictional works.
** The beginning of ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' (1982). Thulsa Doom and his warriors attack in the dead of winter, torch the Cimmerian village, slaughter the inhabitants—allinhabitants -- all while [https://web.archive.org/web/20090725104423/http://goldenaxe.classicgaming.gamespy.com/daimages/Images2/fanart/3)-Thulsa-Doom-original.jpg wearing some strangely familiar helmets]. Also, the "It's not the sword, but the hand that wields it" quote.
** Also, ''King Arthur'' (2005) features a battle on the ice (much smaller in scale).
** The ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' film trilogy seems to be full of them, particularly in the second movie.
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