Emotional impact

WHAT a well-written piece by Mark Swed on the musical restoration of Prokofiev’s underscore to the Eisenstein 1938 Russian film classic, “Alexander Nevsky” [“A Rousing Reception for an Ode to Stalin,” June 4]. I well recall seeing it at age 8 in a Russian movie art house in San Diego as part of a double bill with “Stone Flower.”

There were lots of plot holes in my haltingly lousy grasp of Russian, but the emotional visual impact of the Field of Death images and accompanying music he described wasn’t lost on me at all ... it was overwhelming, and I found myself brushing away tears at my first cognizant images of the horror of war.

As an adult over 30 years later, it is clear from Swed’s excellent writing that the art of good filmmaking is just as potent today as it was in 1938.

CRAIG CARR

West Hills