YMMV / Alexander Nevsky

• Anvilicious: Absolutely no attempt is made to be subtle about the film's pro-Russian, anti-German message.
• Awesome Music: Sergei Prokofiev's iconic score, which went on to influence later epic soundtracks such as Conan the Barbarian by Basil Poledouris.
• Complete Monster: Hermann von Balk, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, represents a medieval version of the Nazis. Invading Russia under the belief that they should convert to Roman Catholicism or die, he has the village of Pskov slaughtered and the survivors captured. When the village elder tries to reason with him, Hermann has him killed. Afterward, he has toddlers ripped out of their mothers' arms and thrown into a bonfire.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The movie's plot about heavily symbolized Teutonic Knights hit the audience well enough in 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded Soviet Union. In particular, the destruction of Pskov can be uncomfortable to watch knowing what happened to the Soviet cities that fell to the Nazis only a few years after the film debuted, one of which was Pskov itself, which suffered substantial damage during Operation Barbarossa.
• Narm:
  • The action scenes have not aged well, especially those involving Undercranked cavalry, which look like they should be set to "Yakety Sax".
  • Vassili keeps a very goofy grin during his battle scene, as he beats up enemies with a long wooden pole and later a wooden bucket.
• Vindicated by History: A rare case of this happening almost immediately. After Josef Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, the film was banned for its anti-Nazi themes. When the Germans broke off the pact and launched an invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the film was reinstated and became incredibly popular as a morale boost among the embattled Soviet population.

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