CHAPAYEV

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 113, 22 August 1941, Page 17

CHAPAYEV

(Lenfilm)

IMAGINE my’ feactions to Chapayev would have been rather different had I seen it five years ago. This is not to say that one’s standards of criti-

cism change from year to year; stancards of comparison, however, certainly do change. In fact, I could not help feeling a little as I did when I saw an ancient scratched copy of Eisenstein’s Ten Days That Shook the Worldwhat a pity it was to have missed seeing it before its edge had been dulled by the work. of inferior copyists in America. 3 Chapayev is the story of the exploits of a Red Army divisional commander during the Civil War. Not greatly concerned with the conflicting politics of the time, it is more a study of the de-"} velopment of a personality which the circumstances of the revolution had thrust into a sudden and unaccustomed limelight, and a day-to-day record of a phase of one of the bitterest civil wars ever fought. The character study, though a little forced and artificial to start with, gathers strength and dignity as the picture progresses. The record of the fighting is also confused at times, but it, too, has its moments of dignity and drama. One thing the picture does give is an interesting glimpse into the method employed by the leaders of the Revolution of posting a political commissar to each Red Army division. It worked admirably, the picture would have us believe. While control was divided, questions of military tactics were wisely left to the military commander, and questions of discipline and morale to the commissar. Military strategists, I believe, have been heard to question its real practicability. However, that is by the way. To return to the quality of the picture, to me there were four highlights: the " psychological attack" of a brigade of the "Death Guards," a lurid shot of a tank spewing out death from two machine guns, a bald, Prussianish White Russian commander playing The Moonlight Sonata, and Chapayev’s desperate attempt to escape across a river with machine gun bullets making little splashes in the water as he swims. The attack of the "Death Guards" reproduces a gallant and fantastic epi-

sode of the civil war. Shoulder to shoulder, in lines of fifty’ men abreast, these guards advance against the Reds, their rifles slung over their shoulders and cigarettes in their mouths. They march relentlessly to the beat of drums, and when ofe man falls, the ranks close up and the others march on. It is a tribute to the heroism of "the other side," all the more remarkable in a Soviet film. But on the whole, as I may have succeeded in indicating, Chapayev must have been a trifle disappointing to those who had seen its merit8 proclaimed so enthusiasticMlly overseas. i