Battleship Potemkin (1925)

• Year: 1925
• Released: 24 Dec 1925
• Country: Soviet Union
• Adwords: 1 win
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015648/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/battleship_potemkin
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/battleship-potemkin
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Russian, English
• MPA Rating: Not Rated
• Genre: Drama, History, Thriller
• Runtime: 66 min
• Writer: Nina Agadzhanova, Sergei Eisenstein, Grigoriy Aleksandrov
• Director: Sergei Eisenstein
• Cast: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov
• Keywords: silent film, massacre, sailor, slaughter, panic,

	8.0/10
	97/100
	100% – Critics
	86% – Audience

Battleship Potemkin Storyline

The sea is rough and on the battleship Potemkin the multitude of men on deck finds worms in the rotten meat. The sailors refuse to shoot who did not want to eat the rotten meat. On the deck of the ship there is a revolt against the officers. A sailor,Vakulinchuk, that he was the first to invoke the revolt, is shot by an officer, remains hanging on a rope and a group of officers goes to rescue him. A group of sailors approaches Odessa, bringing even the dying sailor with the inscription “killed for a plate of soup”. The inhabitants of Odessa run down the stairs to see the dead sailor. A very long field with a frame from the top connects the flow of people on the stairs with the waves of the sea. A young man reads a letter that incites the revolt to avenge the sailor and alternates in the assembling moved close-ups. With the motto “All for one and one for all” collective despair becomes union. In a very long field the crowd of people goes under and over a bridge. Cossacks arrive and shoot men, women and children on the crowd. A mother goes to meet the Cossacks with her dead son in her arms. Another mother is killed and the caravan with the little child goes down the stairs. The city of Odessa is bombed by Potemkin, which tries to stop the massacre. In the darkness the armored Potemkin advances towards a ship sent by the tsar and get ready for the fight. The fleet sent by the tsar does not open fire and all shout to the brotherhood.

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Battleship Potemkin Movie Reviews

A true Masterpiece from Eisentstein

Battleship Potemkin is a celluloid masterpiece. The direction of

Eisenstein is truly a sight. The film chronicles a ship of disgruntled

sailors who are tired of being mistreated by their superior officers.

Eventually, the sailors finally have enough of the abuse and send the

officers packing. During this time period, there was a shortage of film

stock in the Soviet Union. The goverment wanted to get their message

out to the people so they started a National Film Company and one of

the members was Sergei Eisenstein. The films were shot on miniscule

budgets and the shortage of film stock forced Eisentein to be careful

and selective with the footage that he shot. In the end, Eisenstein had

to reuse footage in order to make a feature length picture.

The most famous of the action set pieces in this film is the much

talked about massacre on the steps. This scene was spoofed in Bananas

and most recently in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables. If you want to

learn film-making, I strongly advise you to watch Battleship Potemkin.

It’s one of the essentials.

A+

Complete propaganda but technically brilliant

At the onset, it must be understood that this film was a propaganda piece that was made with the backing of the new Soviet government. I doubt that director Eisenstein had a lot of control over the product as it had to conform to what the government demanded,…or else! And, as far as producing a propaganda film to commemorate the abortive 1905 Revolution goes, he did an exceptional job! So good that it took years for Stalin to get around to persecuting the director and purging several of his later films (now THAT’S gratitude “Stalin-style”).

The film is a pretty simple movie that concerns a real-life rebellion on the Russian naval ship POTEMKIN as well as an uprising in Odessa by the masses. And, from what I was able to learn, the story was probably relatively faithful to the events though they were of course dramatized a bit here and there. Despite the movie making it appear that all the officers on board were killed, the crew killed several but others were allowed to live. Also, the incredibly sensationalistic and evil character of the insane-looking priest on board the ship was just a very clumsy attempt by the Soviets to ridicule their enemy–organized religion. But, the crew really DID rebel, the citizens of the city really were massacred by the army and the Potemkin did actually escape unscathed because the other ships refused to fire on her. Unfortunately, what happened next was never covered in the film and I wish it had been. While it made it look as if perhaps the other ships joined Potemkin in rebellion, this wasn’t the case. Instead, the ship defected to Romania and most of the crew either stayed there or returned after the 1917 revolution–the few that returned sooner were prosecuted.

If you ignore some inconsistencies and over-the-top priest character, the rest of the film is brilliant, moving and was a very effective piece. Compared to other Hollywood productions, the camera-work was amazing–with crane shots, cameras that seamlessly moved with the action and terrific dramatic scenes that made you almost wish you, too, were a Communist.

I noticed that there were quite a few negative reviews and those who felt the film was overrated. While I do agree its reputation is greatly overrated, I can’t agree with scores of 1, 2 or 3 stars, as technically the film is well-made and effective compared to other films of the day. Don’t let the film’s political bias make you dismiss it unfairly, but also do not accept the film as Gospel (that’s an interesting choice of words considering the Atheist Soviet government, eh?).

Iconic

A Russian silent film I’d been meaning to watch for eons having seen the famous ‘Odessa Steps’ sequence homaged in so many more recent films. This is as good as expected, depicting world-shattering events on a small but no less lively scale; we follow the crew of a ship who decide to join the Russian Revolution, and the violence that erupts as a result. The steps set-piece is the real highlight here, but the whole thing feels bravura, a powerful depiction of the people fighting back against their violent oppressors.