Chapaev

Apart from being a sound film, this movie differed from Battleship Potemkin. It gave the characters more depth, and because of that, I believe the audience cared about them more (not that they didn't care about those in Potemkin, but Chapaev offered more emotional ties to characters instead of situations).

I really liked Chapaev's character. Well, at first I thought he was kind of a jerk, but he grew on me. I loved it when he wanted to hear of Alexander the Great! He was like a child, begging Furmanov for a story. He was also inventive with his insults (I'm waiting for the opportunity to call someone an "enema injector"). There was a point where he was addressing the troops, and it really reminded me of the St. Crispin's Day speech. He put himself on their level, just as Henry V did (sort of).

I also liked that Anka was such a strong female character. She allowed for an element that wasn't in Potemkin- romance. She was Petka's love interest, but it's obvious she was to be seen as an equal. It wasn't until she'd mastered the machine gun that she allowed the thought of them being together.

Petka and Chapaev seemed to have sort of a father/son relationship. I especially liked when the two of them were singing the song about the raven, and wondered if their harmonizing was symbolic of them working together.