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73% Critic Match
Ivan the Terrible, Part I
7.3 / 10• 1944• 1h 35m•NR• Russian
DramaHistory
Storyline
Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.
Cast & Crew
Nikolai Cherkasov
Czar Ivan IV
Lead
Lyudmila Tselikovskaya
Czarina Anastasia Romanovna
Serafima Birman
Boyarina Efrosinia Staritskaya
Mikhail Nazvanov
Prince Andrei Kurbsky
Mikhail Zharov
Czar's Guard Malyuta Skuratov
Amvrosii Buchma
Czar's Guard Aleksei Basmanov
Mikhail Kuznetsov
Fyodor Basmanov
Pavel Kadochnikov
Vladimir Andreyevich Staritsky
What People Are Saying
4.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Sergei Eisenstein's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
4.0
“Every frame feels alive. Ivan the Terrible, Part I is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
