Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

04 Feb 2023 23:10

Simpson argues that Christianity's preoccupation with devotional practices and inner states of being has the effect of separating us from the physical side of existence – and that alienation, Simpson argues, contributes to our stagnation and deterioration both as individuals and as a people.

R.S.Griffin

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

04 Feb 2023 06:47

Brennus by Vincent Pompetti

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 23:47

Lady of Elche

A limestone bust of Iberian origin depicting an unkown female

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 08:38

And Vassily’s wife seeing a vision of him, finally accepting her husbands death.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 08:35

The overall reception was very positive among the people, but the critics and censors were negative. Dovzhenko was really treading on thin ice and almost lost his career. He was accused of being a counterrevolutionary, pro-farmer and even a pantheist or some nature worshiper.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 08:31

Speaking of communist ideas, the film was heavily censored and some scenes were cut and restored only years later such as the tractor pissing scene.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 08:26

He tells Opanas not to grief and that:

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 08:06

Farmer’s son Choma who killed Vassily goes mad with guilt and confesses to the crowd, but they ignore him which makes him completely insane, crying and rolling on the ground.
Ultimately he is not really a villain since his feeling are understandable. His family was literally robbed of their animals and land, two things a farm can’t survive without.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 07:39

Opapas then goes to the village council and asks them to bury his son in a new way with no priests and church involvement. Ironically this new is reminiscent the old Pagan burials. The burial procession begins as the open coffin with Vasisily’s body is carried through the village while men and women sing. This is the beginning of the film’s finale which combines death, birth, madness and beauty all at the same time.
Note how his father’s apple tree’s branch touches Vasily’s face as if saying goodbye to him. While the coffin is still carried a woman is giving birth hinting at the cycle of life theme yet again with new life replacing the old one. Meanwhile Vassily’s young wife is mad with grief crying for him to return. She is also stripped naked which makes the scene even more unsettling.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 07:26

Grieving father is sure Choma is the murderer and confronts him about it. The lad does’t admit it, but can’t look Opanas in the eyes.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 07:09

Next scene is an important one too as it shows the new, dehumanized process of bread making by the machines, intercut with women and sheaves which represent the old way.
Corrupted by the machines the sacred ritual of human-nature interaction is turned into something automated and industrialized, bordering on surreal.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 06:55

Speaking of the film’s posters this one is the most popular and here we can see how foolish communist censors were thinking that Vassily is the hero. As mentioned above he is not a villain either, but on this poster he looks intentionally ugly and inhuman depicted with a strange disproportionate body and a mug which doesn’t even look much like the actor. It’s fitting to bring this up now since this is where Vassily commits his greatest crime.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 06:44

The shot ended up so good it was even used for the alternative poster.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 06:40

The grand event brings all villager out of their homes including this great shot of an old man with his ox. They are manifestations of the old word looks from obese the hill on a machine which will replace them.
This is one of the best shots in the film. My second favorite.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 06:27

Next we get a couple of good scenes like Petro on his friends grave and Opanas plowing with oxen, but I’d like to highlight this one. Another example of Dovzhenko’s cinematographic language showing the natural coexistence of humanity and Nature as well as the fact that they are equal. Three young bulls and three young men are show one after another.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

04 Feb 2023 19:10

Cornicen by Vincent Pompetti

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 23:47

Reconstruction of the Iberian Lady of Elche

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 08:42

This is the end of my review. Earth is considered to be one of the best films ever made, praised highly to this day for it’s poetic cinematography full of striking visuals as well as ideological depth. Obviously, in my opinion this praise is well deserved. Hope you will find it interesting too.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 08:37

Despite it’s somewhat depressing ending which show one of the main characters buried and the crowd being tricked by communists, the very final scene is a hopeful one. We see a heavy rain pouring down on the garden bringing life.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 08:31

Another cut scene was Vassily’s wife’s naked frenzy. It was also the first nude scene of soviet cinema.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 08:29

Communist airplane is a metaphor for high ideas the commies believed in and tried to spread among the people.
Note that Dovzhenko didn’t show the airplane implying that it doesn’t exist and only the communists speaker and the charmed crowd can see it.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 08:19

And finally, the big propaganda scene. Vassily’s communist friend, the same one who tried to "convert" Opanas makes a grand speech using his friend’s burial as a chance to promote the new ideas.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 07:47

We see the priest frantically cursing the villagers crying for his god to punish them for their heathen ways. The old priest keeps crying alone in the empty church. His pleas are left unanswered.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 07:29

This bring us to the topic of the film’s stance of religion. Opanas shuns away an old priest who comes to conduct a proper ritual, he even tells him that there is no god.
The film’s anti-christian stance did please the censors since communists did go against christianity early on, though later they began promoting it.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 07:20

Next scene shows Vassily happily dancing as he return home late at night proud with his work. I’ve heard foreign reviewers compare it to Gene Kelly’s performance in Singin' in the Rain (1952), but unlike the American romantic comedy this is a drama and the end is tragic. Vassily is suddenly shot in the back and collapses on the street while the culprit runs away.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 07:04

When the tractor arrives Vassily is confronted and even gets vaguely threatened by farmer’s son Choma, but he doesn’t care. He gets on top of a newly arrived tractor and destroys the old field. The ease with which the machine does it’s job is contracted with honest, yet tiring labor of Vassily’s father mowing with a scythe.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 06:48

Another alternative poster also features the same man with an ox.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 06:43

The three look grand being filmed from such angle, which once again shows the director’s respect of the common man and his work. Also note the human-animal symbiosis once again expressed by the cinematography. The oxen are enslaved under the yoke, but rather stand side to side with the man.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 06:37

Arrival

Now we see the great coming of the machine. The people are both scared and excited and it doesn’t go smoothly. The government representatives in the village receive a call from the city which asks them whether the machine arrived. Afraid of higher-up’s they lie that it did even though the tractor stooped having no water in the cooler. Next comes a scene which was originally cut having angered the censors. Having nothing better to do the men driving the tractor take turns pissing into the cooler which actually works and the machine arrives. This is just a comedic scene and the reason it got commies angry is obvious.

Aryan Paganism, Traditions and Art (APTA)

03 Feb 2023 02:06

It’s important to understand that Vassily is neither a hero, nor a villain, but rather a victim of the new regime and the divide it brings. He just happens to have a strong sense of justice yet doesn’t not have the foresight to see what the communism will really bring (Holodomor).
As a result the entire movie has a very grim and prothetic quality to it. Dovzhenko released it in 1930 and Holodomor officially began in 1932, though many villages were already starving as soon as Stalin began the collectivization.