Eisenstein's third feature, October was commissioned by the Soviet government to honour the tenth anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution. Eisenstein used the film to advance what he saw as the further development of his theories of montage, using a concept he described as "intellectual montage." The film's most celebrated examples of the technique include a baroque figure of Jesus Christ reduced, through a series of successive images, to a primitive idol, and Kerensky, head of the pre-revolutionary Provisional Government, compared to a preening mechanical peacock.
Unfortunately, the film was not as successful and influential as Potemkin was. Such metaphorical experiments met with official disapproval; the authorities complained that October was unintelligible to the masses, and Eisenstein was attacked -- for neither the first time nor the last -- for "formalism." He was also required to re-edit the work to expurgate references to Trotsky, who had recently been purged by Stalin.
In spite of the film's lack of popular acceptance, it is considered by film historians to be an immensely rich experience -- a sweeping historical epic of vast scale, and a powerful testament to Eisenstein's genius and artistry.