1930 Soviet propaganda piece
Rating: 16/20
Plot: Farmers wrestle with the idea of collective farming.
Aleksandr Dovzhenko is more interested in allowing his visuals to tell his story. And that's likely why you get intertitles that detail dialogue like "You dyin', Simon?", "Well, goodbye, I'm dyin'," and "He liked pears."
That was all post-lengthy pear montage. This movie also has a pretty stunning bread-making montage, and I almost had to turn the movie off during that dizzying sequence because of my gluten intolerance. I enjoyed both of those food-related moments, and I also liked a death dance and some subversive religious imagery. But nothing can compare to the arrival of a tractor where even the horses are jazzed and an order to "Let 'er fly!" which preceded a shot of some guys urinating on the new piece of machinery. I probably only watch Russian movies to impress a certain Russian friend of mine, but I'm always going to be all-in if there's a scene where people urinate on farm equipment.
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