Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 and 2

Ivan the Terrible

was a massive undertaking for Eisenstein; his intention was to present a history of Russia's notorious ruler Ivan IV. But his problem was that he must at the same time satisfy the Ministry of Cinematography, whose duty was to Stalin, and whose artistic principles were secondary to their highly sensitive view of what was politically acceptable.

Part I was released in 1945, but the second part was banned and Eisenstein died before he could complete the re-editing. This edition contains the original shooting script for Parts I, II, and III, plus an Introduction describing the making of the film, and an interview between Eisenstein and Stalin.