Revolutionary

The Battleship Potemkin (1925)

This Soviet era propaganda film based on the 1905 mutiny on the title ship is directed by Sergei Eisenstein. After mistreatment and being made to eat rotten meat filled with maggots the crew of a Russian battleship start a communist uprising.

Why is this silent film considered so important? The answer is montage. These days we take the idea of montages for granted but Eisenstein was the pioneer that created the idea of cutting together different shots that created a collage in film to express emotion and metaphor. This film is the first real example of montage put into practise and it does so during the famous sequence of the massacre on the Odessa Staircase.

As a story this film is obviously going to have some problems given that it is a propaganda piece and thus likely not historically accurate in every sense, it is unlikely there was even a massacre on the Odessa Staircase for example. Silent film is not the easiest thing to watch for a modern audience but that is not to say the film is not entertaining. Clearly this is a milestone film but I do think it is a little over hyped in terms of being a true great as we know the content is flawed representation of history.

4/5