Ivan the Terrible behaves reasonably under the circumstances of the intrigue surrounding him

Eisenstein spread throughout the 90 minutes of his Ivan the Terrible Part 2 a single instance of conflict between members of Ivan's own family, disapproving his beholding of himself to his people, the populace, though the people's call for him is the reason he is Tsar. He verbalizes respect for his family and orders that no one take action against them. Rather he turns the action they take against him into their own punishment. And much of this occurs in color, agfa color taken from the Germans, though processed with Russian chemistry. It is a red oddity segment with song and dance music by Prokofiev. It follows the religious black and white chorus of a pageant chastising the ruler of Russia for placing himself above a God that would constrict his dedication to the people. He appears to behave erratically, but he really is alone and needs to maintain his position, which is, after all, given to him by the people. He is a public servant.