Ivan the Terrible by Eisenstein Part I

For a sound film being made in 1944 Ivan the Terrible was a pretty intelligent film. What I noticed at first about the film that I could think were pretty accurate were the props, and costumes of the actors and extras who either played part of the royal family, religious figures, the Boyars, and warriors. Eisenstein in one scene used a huge shadow of Tsar Ivan's head to show what power or what fear Ivan instilled in others, and other shadows to help enforce what kind of characters they were or what scene was taking place. A coincidence that I noticed in Ivan the Terrible which was in Battleship Potemkin was the never ending lines of people. I think why Eisenstein used this again in Ivan the Terrible was for the same reason as he did in Battleship Potemkin to show what impact that number of people (whether they were extras or not)makes in a scene with a martyr or a Tsar. In Ivan the Terrible I understand how Ivan got his nickname. He was pretty much unliked by a lot of his comrades from the start of being crowned Tsar, even by his own cousin. When it came to Ivan falling ill after the battle of Kazan, was his "death" faked or was he really cured? And if it was faked was Anastasia (his Tsarina) the only one in on it? The part of the film after Ivan's fake death, when Anastasia lets slips that Ivan isn't dead to Prince Andrei Kurbsky, I don't know if it really shows that there was any affection from her to Andrei. It seems very opposite and one sided with Andrei proclaiming that he will protect Anastasia if the Boyars shall attack. The Boyars themselves seemed to be the voice of the Russian people thoughout the movie. I was surprised though that Stalin would allow such a movie about a Tsar like Ivan the Terrible to be released but later on I could see why, since a lot of the attributes that Ivan had so did Stalin.