In Russia's factory region during Czarist rule, there's restlessness and strike planning among workers; management brings in spies and external agents. When a worker hangs himself after being falsely accused of thievery, the workers strike.
This was Eisenstein's first full-length feature film, and he would go on to make "The Battleship Potemkin" later that year. While the follow-up is certainly Eisenstein's best (and indeed one of the all-time great films of the silent era), his debut is nothing to sneeze at.
We have some very clever comparisons between people's traits and animals (the fox, the owl, the monkey) and later on a comparison between workers and a herd of cattle. The whole thing is not just politically charged (pro-Soviet, pro-Bolshevik) but saturated with symbolism.
This was Eisenstein's first full-length feature film, and he would go on to make "The Battleship Potemkin" later that year. While the follow-up is certainly Eisenstein's best (and indeed one of the all-time great films of the silent era), his debut is nothing to sneeze at.
We have some very clever comparisons between people's traits and animals (the fox, the owl, the monkey) and later on a comparison between workers and a herd of cattle. The whole thing is not just politically charged (pro-Soviet, pro-Bolshevik) but saturated with symbolism.