by Hal Erickson
synopsis
As part of Russia's de-Stalinization process, the Soviet Prolog plays down Stalin's participation in the Revolution. Instead, Lenin emerges as the film's hero -- in fact, he's the only simon-pure, totally sincere personality in the entire project. More than one critic noted that Prolog resembled an American western, with clearly defined good guys and bad guys and a rootin', tootin', shootin' climax. Unabashedly propagandistic, the film is also immensely enjoyable. An entry in the 1957 Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Prolog was the cinematic swan song of director Efim Dzigan, who 20 years earlier won the Paris World's Fair Grand Prize for We Are From Kronstadt.
