IVAN THE TERRIBLE
Written and Directed
by S. EISENSHTEIN
Photography -
A. MOSKVIN, E. TISSE
Music by Sergei PROKOFIEV
Ivan the Terrible -
Nikolai CHERKASOV
Tsarina Anastasia -
L. TSELIKOVSKAYA
Efrosinya, the tsar's aunt -
Serafima BIRMAN
Vladimir, Efrosinya's son -
P. KADOCHNIKOV
The oprichniks:
Malyuta Skuratov - M. ZHAROV
Alexei Basmanov - A. BUCHMA
His son Fedor Basmanov -
M. KUZNETSOV
Prince Andrei Kurbsky -
M. NAZVANOV
The boyar Fedor Kolychev,
later
Mitropolite of Moscow Filipp -
A. ABRIKOSOV
Pimen, Archbishop of Novgorod -
A. MGEBROV
The protodeacon - M. MIKHAILOV
God's fool Nikola - V. PUDOVKIN
Production Designer -
I. SCHPIENEL
This film is about a person,
grand prince of Moscow,
who, in the 16th century,
consolidated our country,
who brought together
separate selfish princehoods
into one powerful state.
He was a military leader
through whom our country
was glorified
from the east to the west.
As a token
of his great mission
he was the first Russian ruler
to have officially crowned himself
as Tsar of the Whole Russ.
In the name of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Crowned for his tsardom
is the grand prince,
our holy ruler,
Ioann Vasilievich,
to be called thereafter
our holy autocrat
the Tsar of Moscow
and the Whole Russ.
A Moscow grand prince
is not entitled to be a tsar.
Europe will refuse
to acknowledge him.
He will be strong - they will.
Some of his subjects
grumble, too.
Which is quite understandable.
The grand prince's cousin
Voldemar Staritsky
and his Mother.
Ioann the tsar
is a stumbling point on their way
to the Moscow throne.
But there are those
as support Ioann.
The family of the bride
to the grand prince.
No, the tsar.
He is the tsar already.
In the name of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit...
Oh, our Tsar,
receive from God Himself
this sceptre.
Take it, my son.
Receive henceforth the country...
Take it, my son.
For now and ever
and unto ages of ages.
To the newly crowned tsar
Ioann Vasilievich
of the whole Russ,
to our holy autocrat
we wish peace
and good health
and we sing him praise
and we sing to him:
Many Years to you!
Many Years to you!
For the first time ever
the grand prince of Moscow
is being crowned
as tsar of the whole Russ,
thus putting an end
to the ill-famed
boyars polycracy.
From now on Russ
will be a consolidated state.
He is challenging
us the boyars...
But one needs to be strong
to keep Russ in one hand.
Hereby I ordain
a standing army of the strelets
to be formed.
And the one
who does not take part
in our great campaigns
shalt participate
through donating money.
To destroy ourselves
with our own money, eh.
Holy monasteries, too,
shalt participate
in these campaigns
by their big profits.
For the Russian land shall profit
from their amassed treasures.
Spines should be broken
of those
who oppose the unity of Russ!
For only a state
strong inside itself
can be strong outside itself.
Our country is but a stump,
its body severed
up to its knees and elbows.
The upper reaches of the Volga,
Dvina and Volkhova
remain under our dominion,
while their sea approaches
belong to other countries.
The primorye lands
which used to belong
to our forefathers
have been taken
away from us.
So I have myself crowned also
to the ownership
of the erstwhile Russian lands
which foreign countries
have not for long.
Two Romes fell,
but not Moscow.
And there will be no third Rome.
And I will remain
the sole master of Moscow,
the third Rome!
The Pope won't suffer it happen!
Nor the emperor will!
Europe won't acknowledge thee.
They will, when he is strong.
We should not allow him
to become strong.
His wedding is on the Feast
of Simeon the God-bearer.
So, let us prepare
the wedding celebration.
Why this privilege
becometh with Ioann?
Why prince Kurbsky
shall be his servant?
Aren't the Kurbskys
any less noble
than Ioann's family?
Why is the monarch of Russ
the prince of Moscow Ioann
and not Andrei Kurbsky
of Yaroslavl?
The oak trees grow around the city,
Dove couples sit on oak trees.
Oh, lo and behold...
Kiss the bride!
What is this bell-ringing
all around Moscow?
Joyful tidings are noised
everywhere.
They talk among themselves
Extolling the good lad.
Kiss the bride!
And his name Ioann the tsar,
Ioann Vasilievich.
Kiss the bride!
Why are you knitting your brow,
oh my friends?
There is a saying, oh my tsar,
that the wedding puts an end
to men's friendship.
What will Fedor Kolychev say?
You are breaking away
from ancient traditions.
And I can see big
disturbance because of this.
I can't thwart a tsar,
nor can I walk along with you.
Let me retire to the monastery.
You swap the earthly tsar
for the heavenly king?
Well, I will not be staying
between you and Him.
Go.
And pray for us sinners.
There is only one thing
I ask from you.
Don't abandon me
in time of trouble
and return here
on my first bid.
They went to burn down
the Glynskys house!
They are moving
towards the tsar's palace!
Open, gates,
Open wide,
Open wide...
She glides like a white swan,
The white swan, beloved swan,
The white swan
Wearing a shining crown.
The tsar walketh around the city,
Looking for a bride.
He looketh into houses
Wondering where his
white swan liveth...
To the tsar!
Zamoskvorechye is all in fire!
Let them in!
The tsar!
The tsar was jinxed!
Enchanted by the tsarina's family!
Enchanted by the Glinskys!
We send forth our complaints
against the Glynskys!
Please put them to reason!
They tear out hearts
from people!
Sprinkling houses
with human blood!
And blood turneth into fire!
And houses burn down!
Moscow becometh
a damned city!
Bells ring and then fall down
of their own accord!
Jinxed, you said?
Bells falling down
of their own accord?
It's a head empty as a bell
that believeth into jinxing.
You, empty-headed ones.
How canst a head
fall down of its own accord?
For this
it should be cut down.
The same it is with bells.
And the ones who ordained bells
be cut down without my permission,
will have their heads
cut down.
- He talks in all earnesty.
- And gets at the root of it.
We shall have heads
cut down with no pity,
we shall expose
the boyars' treason,
rooting them out.
The tsar should hold its tsardom
in fear.
The tsardom without strong hand
is like a horse without reins.
And whosoever is
against the tsar's enemy,
in all his firmness,
will be rewarded,
to the good joy
of the tsar's warriors.
Don't even think
about this, Prince.
Mine is the road
of great service.
I am the tsar's
faithful servant.
Vast are our lands,
but they lack order.
We shall not summon Varangians,
but we shall make order
by our own forces.
Aye, aye!
And traitors we shall expose!
Verily so!
And we shall put to no harm
tradespeople and toilers!
Verily so!
There are three messengers
from Kazan.
From Kazan?
Bring them in.
Kazan severs its
friendship with Moscow,
we are not allies anymore.
We declare war to Moscow.
Kazan is large,
Moscow is but small.
Moscow shall be no more.
And here is a gift
from our great khan.
Do not disgrace
thyself, o Russian tsar,
you should rather kill yourself.
We sought not animosity.
But time is over
that a foreigner
could intrude into Moscow
and remain unpunished!
And this knife will pierce those
who challenged Moscow.
We shall do away with Kazan!
We shall go against Kazan!
To Kazan!
To Kazan!
Listen, khan.
Kazan is small,
Moscow is large.
To Kazan!
You will lead the main troops.
To Kazan!
To Kazan!
Runneth the road
Stretches the Tatar steppe.
Oh, the famous city of Kazan.
Woe to you...
Woe to you...
Even the amount of dimes
to be paid for this battle
pales before
how many people were killed.
Oh, tsar,
Hard is thy work...
Make thy guns and arquebuses,
Oh cannon founders
You are brethren
to thine arms,
To guns and swords and lances.
Install thy guns,
oh cannon founders,
Install them on the walls,
On the walls of Kazan's fortresses,
Aye, good lads from Moscow city.
We can fill the tunnel
with the gun powder.
We have been waiting
for a month already.
High time to attack.
So, it was your idea?
You doubt my gun powder?
Oh, how much you like
to prance on your horse, eh.
Cry out: "Surrender, Kazan!"
Kazan!
Surrender!
You should have better
died from our hand,
than from the hand
of the uncircumcised ones!
Oh, what a senseless cruelty!
Even untamed beasts
are not so cruel.
You raised hand
at your tsar!
I wanted to protect you
from an arrow.
Well, thank you.
The Livonian knight was right.
He will always treat me as a brat.
There are arrows
which fly in good time indeed.
The boyars hatred
is more dangerous than arrows,
and you should fear them.
What's your name?
Alexei Basmanov,
the son of Danila.
Well, I'll remember thy name.
Look, Fedor, my son.
The tsar of the whole Russia!
The tsar!
To Kazan!
Let us help Kurbsky!
Now I will be a full-fledged tsar!
Now everyone will acknowledge me
as the autocrat of the whole Russia!
How is the health
of the Moscow tsar?
His Majesty is ill.
The tsar fell ill
on his way from Kazan.
You called him the tsar?
God is just.
For putting himself
above other princes
now he is dying!
You are the last everywhere, Prince.
Ioann married Anastasia that you loved.
You took Kazan,
but it is Ioann's.
For again the glory lies with Ioann.
And what is there for you?
Prince, prince...
You took Kazan
for the boyars
and your own misfortune.
You won't live long now.
The tsar won't forget
that incident with the arrow.
And even if he does,
there will be someone
to remind him.
The tsar's all-seeing eyes...
Malyuta...
If Ioann lives on,
Kurbsky is done for.
God is all-merciless.
They came to administer
the last rites.
Means the tsar is dying.
Oh, Lord, have mercy.
For whom will you
kiss the cross?
For the heir Dimitry,
Ivan's son.
And for Anastasia?
You covet a widow?
Whose marital bed
is still warm?
Kiss the cross
for Vladimir Andreevich.
The ambition of your likes
is not money,
but a whole state.
You will rule over Moscow
under Vladimir.
He is like a spoiled child.
He is not right in his mind.
You will be a full-fledged master.
Kiss the cross for Vladimir.
The tsar is calling for you.
My death is nigh...
I'm saying my good bye
to this world.
Kiss the cross
for the lawful heir
Dimitry.
Kiss the cross for my son Dimitry!
Kiss the cross for my son!
Only inherited power
will protect Moscow from
the enemy and strife.
Otherwise it will be Poles
and Tatars
and Livonian knights
going against us.
I'm asking not for my sake,
but for my son's sake.
I pray for the integrity
of the Russian land.
Ivan Palitsky...
Turuntai Pronsky.
Danila Kolychev-Umnoy,
set an example...
Kolychev-Nemyatyi, speak up.
Kurletev!
Funikov.
You will be damned
for ever for this.
For betraying the Russian land
you will be damned
forever!
Salvation lieth
only with my son Dimitry.
Without autocracy,
howbeit brave and firm
and reasonable,
but your rule will be
akin to insanity.
You will live
in hatred of each other,
and instead of serving
to your native land
you will become slaves
to foreign rulers.
The boyars,
the glorious boyars
will never fall subject
to the son of the Moscow prince.
The power should lie
with the boyars tsar,
who will share his power
with them,
who will perform their will
serving not to some unknown Russ
but to the boyars families.
Kiss the cross
for the tsar Vladimir!
Glory be to the boyars tsar!
The road to throne...
The road to crown...
Who?
Anastasia?
Efrosinya?
If you be mine,
I'll protect you against the boyars,
I will put you on the throne,
and we shall rule together,
you and I.
Without you life is not life,
but with you even death is nothing.
With you I can rule,
for you I can die!
Oh, my Moscow tsarina.
It's blasphemy to bury
someone who is not dead.
So Ioann is alive?
May God judge you.
Ioann is alive!
"If he is alive,
"Kurbsky will die..."
In the name of the Father,
the Son and the Holy spirit.
I swear on the Holy Bible
to serve faithfully
to the lawful heir,
the tsar of Moscow
Dmitry Ioannovich!
I seal my oath
by kissing the cross!
The holy gifts
have worked
a healing effect on me...
You...
You were the first
under the tsar.
And you will rise even higher,
for in time of the holy test
you were the only one
who remained faithful
to your tsar.
I will entrust you
with the holiest mission.
We have done away
with the East.
Now, Kurbsky,
you will take the troops
to the West,
against Livonia, where the sea is...
You flying away like an arrow?
Well, well...
And our southern borders
where the Crimean khan is
Alexei Basmanov will protect.
Who is he?
Who is he talking about?
The tsar believes not to anyone -
he dismisses the closest boyars
in favor of some strangers.
- The Basmanovs.
- The riff-raff.
Trusting them.
Yes, I know.
He takes away our old lands
and makes us settle
in unknown places.
- He persecutes the boyars.
- Schenyatiev was arrested.
The same is true of Kurletev.
Yes, I know.
I will run away.
I can't take it anymore.
I am scared.
I will flee to Litovia.
Shame on you, Ivan Ivanych.
The metropolitan is on his
way to the tsar.
He will prayerfully try to help.
The tsar pardons no one.
He defrocked me,
the intercessor before God,
and he transfers me to Novgorod.
I will run away!
I swear by God I will!
Let cowards run away.
Those who stay will fight.
While Kurbsky,
Ioann's closest friend, is away,
we should try to win
the tsar on our side.
First of all we should be
in the way
of his growing power.
We should resist his campaigns...
We should not donate our money
into the Livonian War.
And, first of all,
we should keep Anastasia
away from Ioann.
I...
I will do this.
I need the cities of Primorye
and the Baltic region.
I need Riga,
Revel,
Narva...
Hansa and Livonian people
stopped the English ships
due Russia again,
thus leaving us with no lead,
no sulphur for our guns,
and no foreign masters.
I will not suffer
the perfidious enemy
be in the way of our country's good
and strangle us
with selfish manner of trading.
But it is not only the Germans
who are in the way of our good.
You, boyars,
by opposing my Livonian campaign,
showed to be even worse
than Livonians!
You are Russia's enemies, too!
Now you can see, Nepeya,
how I need this military alliance.
You shalt take this gift
to my beloved sister
Elizabeth of England.
And, using these figures,
you shalt explain to her
how her ships
can reach the White Sea,
giving a wide berth
to the Baltic Sea,
thus fooling the Livonians.
And you shalt remind her
that foreign trade
is in the sole discretion
of the tsar Ioann only.
He is the one to give privileges
or to deny access to his country.
Only for the one he loveth
will he open the roads to the East.
My tsar Ioann is sore worried.
I am all alone.
There is no one I can believe.
Kurbsky is far away
fighting in Livonia,
and Fedor Kolychev
is even farther than that,
offering his prayers
on the Solovki Islands.
It's only you that I have.
A message from Ryazan town.
From Basmanov.
It's the boyars again
paying a deaf ear
to our decrees!
They are betraying
the Russian land,
preventing the townspeople
from defending Ryazan,
they are all too ready
to give it away
to the Crimean khan...
Be staunch.
I will.
I will keep the boyars in my fist.
I will take away their lands
and will give them to those
as serve Russ.
And those who hath no honor
will be stripped
of their lands entirely!
Oh, thy stride is wide, tsar Ioann.
The Russian troops were
defeated near Nevel.
Kurbsky surrendered.
Kurbsky?
Could he have betrayed us...
Save me, O God,
for the waters are come in
into my soul.
I sink
in deep mire,
where there is no standing:
I am come into deep waters,
where the floods
overflow me.
I am weary of my crying:
my throat is dried:
my eyes fail while I
wait for my God.
The prince Ivan Shuisky
fled to the Litovian lands.
The prince Ivan Sheremetiev
was intercepted on his way there.
The boyar The Drawn Bow of Suzdal
has run away to Livonia.
They that hate me
without a cause are more
than the hairs of mine head.
The prince Mikhail Vorotynsky
has fled.
The prince Ivan Turuntai-Pronsky
was intercepted
and taken back home.
What if I am wrong?
And what if all this
is God's punishment?
I am become a stranger
unto my brethren,
and an alien
unto my mother's children.
Am I right in my persistence?
Your Majesty...
Kurbsky has run away to Sigismund.
Andrei...
My friend, why?
What could he be lacking?
Or, maybe...
Maybe he coveted my crown?
The boyars are raising
people against you,
talking about your defeat.
Reproach hath broken my heart.
And I am full of heaviness:
and I looked for some
to take pity, but there was none;
and for comforters,
but I found none.
You are lying!
The Moscow tsar is yet strong!
You are not too many.
Summon my last faithful friend,
my only friend Fedor Kolychev.
He is praying for us
at the Solovki monastery.
Do not trust Kolychev.
Surround thyself with new people,
the grassroots
who feel obliged to you.
Let them be an iron belt
surrounding you,
a belt with sharp needles
to prick your enemy.
That should be people
who would have abandoned
their families,
their mother and father,
knowing only their tsar,
fulfilling only his wish.
And to form this belt,
I first of all
give away
my own son,
so that he serves your cause.
It is through them that you will
hold your power
and will smite on the boyars
and traitors,
fulfilling the great cause.
You have said a mouthful, Alyosha.
We shall gird ourselves
with this iron belt,
we shall gather iron-strong brethren
and I will believe no one
but the oprichniks.
I will become an "iron hegumen".
I will forsake Moscow
and hide myself
in Alexandrova Sloboda.
- And you'll go against Moscow?
- Like an invader?
No, not against Moscow.
And not like an invader.
I will return when
summoned by common people.
You can't rely on that.
You can't rely
on the worthless crowd!
You, impudent dog!
Don't you teach the tsar!
And through people's appeal
I will regain unending power.
I will become
an anointed sovereign
entrusted with a great
and merciless mission!
- Tell me.
- You are right.
This popular appeal
will be a heavenly sign
for taking a sword
of punishment!
And I will finish my great cause!
Two Romes fell,
but Moscow, the third Rome,
will go on,
and there will be no fourth Rome!
"The princes and boyars
"as possess big riches,
"but caring neither
for the tsar,
"nor the tsardom itself
"or the Orthodox people,
"they protected us not
"from the Crimean khan,
"or Livonians, or Germans.
"Instead what they do with
people is violence.
"That is why the grand prince
and the tsar
"abandons his state,
"abandons Moscow.
"And the tsar bears
not sore feelings
"towards Orthodox people
of Moscow,
"towards its guests and merchants
"and he is not going
to punish them."
And those good people
as do not merge with princes
and boyars
but, instead, are ready to serve
their tsar
in good faith,
such people are summoned
by the tsar
to Alexandrova Sloboda,
to plead allegiance and join
the oprichniks.
So, you are waiting
for a messenger from Moscow?
The first English ships
with war goods
have entered the White Sea.
So we have outsmarted
thee, Livonians!
Time will come and you
will bow to the Moscow state.
Make the horses ready.
I'm going to Moscow!
For the sake
of my great tsardom!
Alma-Ata Film Studio Production,
1944
