In "The Last Command," Andreyev(William Powell), a movie director, is preparing to film his magnum opus about the Russian Revolution. In casting the role of a Russian general, he finds the real deal in Sergius Alexander(Emil Jannings), the late Tsar's cousin and former commander-in-chief, now forced to work as a film
extra for $7.50 a day. While trying on his costume, Sergius remembers happier days back in his native Russia, commanding troops while having to deal with an insurrection. In the process, he arrests two revolutionists, Andreyev and Natalie(Evelyn Brent).
Towards the beginning, "The Last Command" might seem like just a predictably poignant story of the plight of a fallen man.(Emil Jannings had played a character with a similar arc previously in "The Last Laugh.") Rather, the movie excels in using its enthralling story to provide an expert deconstruction that is far ahead of its time. The shift between Sergius in 1928 and 1917 is so abrupt that I assumed at first that it was the fiction of Andreyev's movie instead of the facts of Sergius' life. Thus "The Last Command" takes full aim at not only Hollywood's problems with the truth but also quite possibly Soviet propaganda like "Potemkin" that this movie shares a similar style with in certain scenes. The point is that the world is much more complex than just black and white with Sergius being a good man on the wrong side of history.
July 20, 2011
