Ten Days That Shook the World

October is a 1927 silent Russian film that was made to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution and gives an interesting view of the events from a Soviet perspective. It was based on the book Ten Days That Shook the World, which can be read online here. I have a Modern Library edition but have never read it. Directed by Eisenstein, who also directed Battleship Potemkin (which can be viewed online here), it is a dramatic re-telling of the historic events. Dmitri Shostakovich composed the music on the video embedded below, but his name isn't listed in the wikipedia article or at the imdb site. The film can be viewed online here or at googlevideo. This version has English inter-titles:


update 2/10/2008: That version has been removed, but Maid Marian Classic Media has this:


I was intrigued by the use of the religious imagery and the contrast with patriotic imagery. In the beginning of the movie the pictures of revolutionaries toppling the statues reminded me of certain other statue toppling that was done during the initial stages of the Iraq invasion, and I wonder how long it usually takes for the less powerful classes to realize that they've made a bad trade.