"Ïvan the Terrible" (1944 and 1958) was made in the second part of the career of Sergeij Eisenstein. It was no longer the Eisenstein of the revolutionary movies ("Battleship Potemkin" (1925) and "Oktober" (1927)) with associative montage and short cuts. It was the Eisentein of historical drama's ("Alexander Nevski" (1938 and "Ivan the Terrible" (1944 & 1958)) with clearly noticable influences of German expressionism and long takes. Mainly due to the beautiful music of Sergei Prokofiev the movie takes on elements of a Wagnerian opera.
In part 2 of the film Ivan, maybe because of the death of his wife, becomes ever more suspicious and cruel. Stalin liked this part of the movie a lot less than the first part. Probably he recognized too much of himself in the character of Ivan and was afraid the moviegoer would make the same connection. Whatever it may be, the film was banished in Russia until 1958, 10 years after the death of Eisenstein and 5 years after the death of Stalin.
In part 2 of the film Ivan, maybe because of the death of his wife, becomes ever more suspicious and cruel. Stalin liked this part of the movie a lot less than the first part. Probably he recognized too much of himself in the character of Ivan and was afraid the moviegoer would make the same connection. Whatever it may be, the film was banished in Russia until 1958, 10 years after the death of Eisenstein and 5 years after the death of Stalin.