As was common in Diaz's Mexico, a young hacienda worker finds his betrothed imprisoned and his life threatened by his master for confronting a hacienda guest for raping the girl. This film is the first of several attempts to make a feature-length motion picture out of the 200,000-plus feet of film shot by Sergei Eisenstein, on photographic expedition in Mexico during 1931-32 for Upton Sinclair and a cadre of private American producer-investors. Silent with music and English intertitles.
Cinematography
Eisenstein's Mexican footage: every frame could hang in a gallery.
Direction
The ghost of Eisenstein's vision haunting someone else's edit.
Production
200,000 feet of footage, zero finished films, maximum drama.
Director
Sergei Eisenstein
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Eisenstein shot enough footage for multiple features but never touched an editing machine; Sinclair's wife Mary and others assembled this without him.
This 'film' is actually Soviet montage theory colliding with American commercial interests and Mexican revolutionary symbolism—a perfect 1930s cultural car crash.
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