The Strike by Sergei Eisenstein

Art is often looked at in relationship to the historical context of the art and the connections that may or may not exist between the artwork and the artist, but when reading the critiques of critics such as Roger Fry, one can see a different approach to criticizing art. Fry suggested through his writings that art has little or no meaningful connection with either the artist who makes it or the culture to which it belongs and that we should analyze works of art out of context –as pure form, rather than as expressions of time and place. He and many other formalist critics concluded that art can be viewed without its cultural context and can viewed in the alphabet of the artist, the language of line, shape, space, color, light, and dark, and through this understanding of the art language, the work of many can be formally critiqued. Film is a form of art and a form of expression, and through Sergei Eisenstein’s Strike and his use of the infamous montage, one can see that his films are no different from the artwork of many masters of paint or marble.

Sergei Eisenstein, a Russian film director, screenwriter, editor, and theoretician who was educated in engineering but took a tu

In a sharp transition from countryside to European-styled mansion, the viewer’s attention is redirected sharply to the huge contrast between the two environments and the colossal difference between the frantic filled first scene and the calm and composed atmosphere of the white-columned house built for the rich. By doing so, Eisenstein visually introduces the distance between the workers and manipulators and then further emphasizes this distance with the wealthy and spoiled appearances of the old and imposing bosses. After a brief introduction to the riches of the mansion, one of the old men is shown with an orange juicer juicing an orange on a desk cluttered with unnecessary displays of fortune, and the old man then begins to talk about the orange juicer as if it’s an unimportant toy made for temporary fascination. The scene then repeatedly shifts back and forth between the maliciously trampling horses and the toy of the rich and powerful bosses, the orange-squeezer, as the juice of the orange slowly trickles out from the machine. This short but effective blending of scenes creates a powerful visual effect that leads the viewers to believe that the bosses are wringing the life out of the peasants as if they were squeezing the juice out of the oranges. Here, through a visual metaphor, Eisenstein further clarifies the situation and the relationship between the slave-like workers and their manipulative masters.

In conclusion, through his use of the basic elements of art, Eisenstein provokes numerous emotional reactions from the viewer, and through his use of the visual language, the observer is lead to believe

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