Battleship Potemkin
Bronenosec Poťomkin
Directed by:
Sergei M. EisensteinComposer:
Edmund MeiselPlots(1)
When they are fed rancid meat, the sailors on the Potemkin revolt against their harsh conditions. Led by Vakulinchuk (Aleksandr Antonov), the sailors kill the officers of the ship to gain their freedom. Vakulinchuk is also killed, and the people of Odessa honor him as a symbol of revolution. Tsarist soldiers arrive and massacre the civilians to quell the uprising. A squadron of ships is sent to overthrow the Potemkin, but the ships side with the revolt and refuse to attack. (Bounty Films)
(more)Reviews (6)
No film without dialogue has said as much to me as Battleship Potemkin did.
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The story of the mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin is fatally simple. First off, the crew rejects the rotten, worm-infested meat, whereupon they are advised to consume this gastronomic delicacy after rinsing it in salted water. That would tend to piss them off. Salt and worms! History has called what followed a revolution, and students can still play on their favorite vivid image of the Odessa stairs. The biggest fights are over the role of the carriage, and only the poor baby’s mother is worse off.
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Objectively, I have to give Battleship Potemkin all five stars. It’s a visually disarming masterpiece, technically extremely advanced and so well constructed that even without dialogue it can repeatedly send chills down the spine and evoke the emotions and ideas that it so blatantly promotes. And for the record, I put the "massacre on the stairs" scene on the same level stylistically as the best of Kubrick and Spielberg. 90%
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A prime and textbook example of the Soviet montage school in the form of a breathtaking war drama that still has something to say to contemporary audiences more than 80 years later. I admire crowd scenes in films and there were plenty of them here, including one of the most visually impressive, the Odessa staircase. Sergei Eisenstein shows here what a skilled filmmaker and craftsman director he is, and I fully believe him. In short, a gem of film history that has particularly good camera work and brisk editing.
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That made me laugh. Agitation of the heaviest category, perhaps still excusable in its day, but so brilliantly filmed in places (The Stairs of Odessa) that it cannot be dismissed. Whenever there was any text I was bursting into loud laughter and the bestial catchphrase "Let's go! Let's beg them!" brought tears to my eyes.
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An incredible film that is a reflection of the era, a portrayal of ideology, but also a masterpiece that only lasts a modest 77 minutes. The mutiny on the Battleship, the crowds in Odessa and their shooting down, these are unbelievable scenes that you can't even believe didn't actually happen. Coordinating so many people for the scene on the stairs is simply incredible. Sergei Eisenstein is simply one of the most significant film creators regardless of nationality, era, or political beliefs.
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