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The Last Command

209 statements
40 feature instances
8 referencing feature instances

The Last Command	type	TVTItem
The Last Command	label	The Last Command
The Last Command	page	TheLastCommand
The Last Command	comment	Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })The Last Command is a 1928 film directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Emil Jannings, William Powell, and Evelyn Brent. A Hollywood film director, Leo Andreyev (Powell) is looking for suitable extras to put in his film about the Russian Revolution. He spots the headshot for one Sergius Alexander (Jannings), a man who claims to have been a Russian general, and decides to hire him. Sergius is a broken man, living in a tiny room and eking out a living by working as a film extra for $7.50 a day. And if that weren't bad enough, he has a persistent head twitch which he explains by saying "I had a great shock once!".As Sergius puts on his makeup the film flashes back to 1917, pre-revolution. It turns out Sergius really was a general, and not only that, but also a Romanov Grand Duke and cousin to the Tsar. Military police in Sergius's army identify two actors, Leo Andreyev and his companion Natalie (Brent), as known subversives. Sergius has them brought in for questioning. After Leo insults him, Sergius has him thrown in jail, but Sergius decides to keep Natalie with him as a companion and mistress. Leo rots in a cell while Natalie is drawn against her will to the dynamic Sergius—but Red October soon turns everything upside down.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })This film, coming on the heels of the very successful gangster flick Underworld, established von Sternberg as one of the hottest young directors in Hollywood, but he would soon go back to Germany to make The Blue Angel with Jannings and Marlene Dietrich. Jannings won the first Academy Award for Best Actor for his work in this film and The Way of All Flesh, but he soon had to go back to Germany as well due to his heavy accent. After The Blue Angel, Jannings would spend the rest of his career making movies for the Nazis. The Last Command also helped launch William Powell onto the Hollywood A-list. Of the six movies that Jannings made in Hollywood, this is the only one that has survived.
The Last Command	fetched	2022-08-24T22:27:24Z
The Last Command	parsed	2022-08-24T22:27:24Z
The Last Command	processingComment	Dropped link to CallBack: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Last Command	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Last Command / int_1439161f	type	Heroic BSoD
The Last Command / int_1439161f	comment	Heroic BSoD: Sergius starts to slip into one as soon as the revolution happens and he is taken prisoner by the mob. Natalie's death makes it permanent.
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The Last Command / int_18d15922	type	Title Drop
The Last Command / int_18d15922	comment	Title Drop: "You've given your last command", says one of the soldiers in the Film Within a Film.
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The Last Command / int_1da5941e	type	The Quiet One
The Last Command / int_1da5941e	comment	The Quiet One: After the revolutionaries pull him off the train, Sergius doesn't speak until the very end of the film.
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The Last Command / int_1e1afc1b	type	Framing Device
The Last Command / int_1e1afc1b	comment	Framing Device: The Show Within a Show, beginning and ending the movie, with its main part being Sergius's flashback.
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The Last Command / int_22cf536c	type	Chekhov's Gun
The Last Command / int_22cf536c	comment	Chekhov's Gun: The engineer on the train joins in the debauchery and passes out from too much liquor. This causes the train to fall off the bridge and into the river below.
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The Last Command / int_2484396e	type	Know-Nothing Know-It-All
The Last Command / int_2484396e	comment	Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Leo's assistant on set claims he knows everything about Russia after making twenty pictures, but manages to get a major costume detail wrong that both Sergius tries to and Leo eventually corrects him on.
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The Last Command / int_2af6bbeb	type	Break the Haughty
The Last Command / int_2af6bbeb	comment	Break the Haughty: Sergius isn't a bad person per se, but he's definitely haughty, taking Natalie with him just because he can, and threatening to shoot his adjutant for stealing his cigarettes. He gets thoroughly broken.
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The Last Command / int_2dae4381	type	My Master, Right or Wrong
The Last Command / int_2dae4381	comment	My Master, Right or Wrong: At first it appears Serguis' loyalty lies with the Tsar, but eventually, it's revealed his truly loyalty is to the idea of Russia itself that he clings to.
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The Last Command / int_33c2b1e2	type	Best Served Cold
The Last Command / int_33c2b1e2	comment	Best Served Cold: Leo tells Sergius that "I have waited ten years for this moment, Your Imperial Highness."
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The Last Command / int_382a6399	type	The Hero Dies
The Last Command / int_382a6399	comment	The Hero Dies: The general, hallucinating he's once again the general at the front lines in Russia, makes a heroic speech about how Russia must prevail, and collapses from a heart attack. Leo cradles him and tells him they won as he dies.
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The Last Command / int_3a4522df	type	PietÃ Plagiarism
The Last Command / int_3a4522df	comment	Pietà Plagiarism: Leo cradles Sergius after Sergius collapses. A helpful cameraman even shines a light to highlight them.
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The Last Command / int_4b1afa0d	type	Spiteful Spit
The Last Command / int_4b1afa0d	comment	Spiteful Spit: After Sergius' train is stopped and he's captured by the mob, one of the revolutionaries spits vodka in his face.
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The Last Command / int_55ab1be5	type	Royal Brat
The Last Command / int_55ab1be5	comment	Royal Brat: The Tsar is depicted like this, "thinking the war is a parlor game", as Sergius put it, taking a division from the front line for a parade. Sergius is then told he should make the troops charge when the Tsar visits the front line, purely for drama's sake. The general finally has enough of this nonsense and refuses to allow hundreds of men to die purely to humor their ruler.
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The Last Command / int_56515a39	type	Artistic License â€“ History
The Last Command / int_56515a39	comment	Artistic License – History: The film seems to be conflating the February revolution (which toppled the Romanovs) and the October revolution (in which the Bolsheviks seized power). In the movie the Tsar's government is apparently directly replaced by the Bolsheviks, which did not happen in Real Life.
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The Last Command / int_5fb5dad8	type	Royal Blood
The Last Command / int_5fb5dad8	comment	Royal Blood: Sergius and the Tsar.
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The Last Command / int_6383a034	type	The Mutiny
The Last Command / int_6383a034	comment	The Mutiny: Leo is freed when his jailers revolt. Also, Sergius's adjutant turns on him with a vengeance at the moment the revolution breaks out.
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The Last Command / int_6bd689ca	type	Meaningful Echo
The Last Command / int_6bd689ca	comment	Meaningful Echo: See Second-Face Smoke. Also, Leo's use of calling Sergius "Your Imperial Highness" is done with sarcasm to humiliate him. But the final time he says it, it's with respect as Sergius lies dying.
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The Last Command / int_7a143509	type	Shell-Shocked Veteran
The Last Command / int_7a143509	comment	Shell-Shocked Veteran: Sergius, as the result of his story revealed through the flashback.
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The Last Command / int_80251be3	type	How We Got Here
The Last Command / int_80251be3	comment	How We Got Here: After establishing that Sergius is a broken shell of a man living in poverty, the film jumps back ten years to show how things came to this point.
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The Last Command / int_813f4eec	type	Humble Pie
The Last Command / int_813f4eec	comment	Humble Pie: Revolutionaries do this to Sergius, making him stoke the train to Petrograd.
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The Last Command / int_8288929a	type	Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves
The Last Command / int_8288929a	comment	Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: One of Sergius' underlings, who he had threatened to shoot just for putting on his coat, yanks the coat off and joins the revolutionaries. When he protests over one of them taking Natalie, saying "The woman goes with the coat", the revolutionary takes out a gun and shoots him without blinking.
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The Last Command / int_84df9a79	type	Second-Face Smoke
The Last Command / int_84df9a79	comment	Second-Face Smoke: First Sergius to the arrested Leo, than Leo to Sergius, both times as a sign of humiliation.
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The Last Command / int_90e31482	type	Laser-Guided Karma
The Last Command / int_90e31482	comment	Laser-Guided Karma: The revolutionaries are portrayed as very nasty people and every single one of them with no survivors (unfortunately including Natalie) end up at the bottom of the river when the train plunges off the tracks.
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The Last Command / int_9970d26b	type	Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality
The Last Command / int_9970d26b	comment	Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: After getting dressed up in his general's uniform again, put in a trench warfare set, and told to harangue his mutinous soldiers, Sergius snaps. Thinking he's back in 1917 and fighting the revolutionaries, he grabs the Imperial Russian flag and tells his men to charge forward to "victory". Then he collapses and dies.
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The Last Command / int_9ae8eea9	type	Character Tics
The Last Command / int_9ae8eea9	comment	Character Tics: Sergius constantly shakes his head in a "no" gesture. The movie eventually reveals that this happened after he watched Natalie's train plunge into a river.
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The Last Command / int_9f6fb586	type	Leitmotif
The Last Command / int_9f6fb586	comment	Leitmotif: "God Save the Tsar", the Russian Empire's national anthem, used both as a part of the movie's sound track, and in-universe by Leo on the set.
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The Last Command / int_a754fa9a	type	Instant Death Bullet
The Last Command / int_a754fa9a	comment	Instant Death Bullet: Sergius's adjutant collapses and dies instantly after getting shot.
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The Last Command / int_aba8065b	type	Fatal Flaw
The Last Command / int_aba8065b	comment	Fatal Flaw: Sergius' is shown that he can't change with the times. The Russia he knew is almost dead and gone in a very literal sense, but he can't shake his loyalty to it, and this ends up being his undoing.
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The Last Command / int_b4dcdf5b	type	Antagonist in Mourning
The Last Command / int_b4dcdf5b	comment	Antagonist in Mourning: Leo, who wanted to humiliate Sergius, feels regretful after Sergius collapses and dies.
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The Last Command / int_b63019a5	type	High-Heelâ€“Face Turn
The Last Command / int_b63019a5	comment	High-Heel–Face Turn: Natalie, the flag-waving revolutionary, falls in love with Sergius and apparently makes peace with becoming The Mistress. After he's about to be hanged by a mob, she manages to manipulate the situation to get him put back on the train, and then later helps him escape.
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The Last Command / int_bcff3e56	type	The Last Title
The Last Command / int_bcff3e56	comment	The Last Title
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The Last Command / int_c2393191	type	Show Within a Show
The Last Command / int_c2393191	comment	Show Within a Show: Leo, formerly a real revolutionary, is now shooting a film about the Russian Revolution.
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The Last Command / int_cf511248	type	All Part of the Show
The Last Command / int_cf511248	comment	All Part of the Show: Everyone on set except for Leo thinks that Sergius is just really getting into character. Instead, it appears he's on the verge of a mental breakdown.
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The Last Command / int_d55108a1	type	Horrible Hollywood
The Last Command / int_d55108a1	comment	Horrible Hollywood: Von Sternberg later explained that he "saw an opportunity to deal with the machinery of Hollywood and its callous treatment of the film extra." The scrum of extras lining up to get their costumes at the studio is called "the bread line of Hollywood". All in all, it seems a pretty bleak existence.
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The Last Command / int_d67e900a	type	Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job
The Last Command / int_d67e900a	comment	Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job / Impoverished Patrician: Going from Russian Grand Duke and army general, to poverty-stricken movie extra, is a pretty long fall.
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The Last Command / int_dc579c91	type	Contrived Coincidence
The Last Command / int_dc579c91	comment	Contrived Coincidence: Sergius jumps off train moments before a bridge suddenly collapses under it.
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The Last Command / int_dc955e66	type	Inspired by…
The Last Command / int_dc955e66	comment	Inspired by…: The life of Theodore Lodijensky, a real Tsarist Russian general who escaped to Hollywood and worked as an extra for a while, as well as opening a restaurant.
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The Last Command / int_e3847ee8	type	Cigarette of Anxiety
The Last Command / int_e3847ee8	comment	Cigarette of Anxiety: Natalie, who has a hidden gun, can't bring herself to shoot Sergius. Sergius, who sees her gun without her noticing, sees how twitchy she is and gets her a cigarette.
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The Last Command / int_ea5c413d	type	Biting-the-Hand Humor
The Last Command / int_ea5c413d	comment	Biting-the-Hand Humor: The director wanted to show just how bad the Hollywood system could treat people and some humor comes from seeing all the extras struggle and then wait around to be told what to do.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Last Command	hasFeature	Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality / int_960c149e
The Last Command	hasFeature	Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job / int_960c149e
The Last Command	hasFeature	Framing Device / int_960c149e
The Last Command	hasFeature	Humble Pie / int_960c149e
The Last Command	hasFeature	Royal Brat / int_960c149e
The Last Command	hasFeature	Second-Face Smoke / int_960c149e
The Last Command	hasFeature	The Last Title / int_960c149e
The Last Command	hasFeature	TIME — All-Time 100 Movies / int_960c149e

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