Strike

Soviet master Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 debut feature, which tells the story of a worker's strike in pre-revolutionary Russia, was itself an experiment in revolutionary cinema. The idea (what Eisenstein called “typage”) was to create a hero out of “the collective”—represented by salt-of-the-earth types—while also presenting the capitalist bad guys and thugs as exaggerated stereotypes of sinister and decadent figures. Eisenstein's mix of avant-garde effects and striking images are edited into a series of chapters that teach their Marxist lessons with all the energy of a Hollywood gangster film. In between the action sequences, Strike offers up quiet, poetic observations of street life and weekend idylls. Using the familiar story of proletariat struggle as a structure for stylistic impressionism was highly unconventional at the time; today, the film comes across as a mix of Soviet propaganda and crime-flick fun, marking a first attempt at techniques that Eisenstein would perfect with his next film, the landmark Battleship Potemkin. Newly remastered for DVD and Blu-ray from a recent restoration by the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, Strike also features a newly recorded score by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. Extras include the 2008 documentary Eisenstein and the Revolutionary Spirit (a Russian production featuring cinema historian Natacha Laurent), and Eisenstein's first effort, Glumov's Diary (1923), a short that was long thought lost. A worthy addition to any library of silent-movie classics, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)