THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN Movie Review

Potemkin Bronenosets Potemkin

Sergei Eisenstein's depiction of the 1905 navy mutiny that ultimately led to the Russian Revolution is considered a classic and deserves to be. With Potemkin, Eisenstein took the lessons of D.W. Griffith ever further in the use of quick editing and the subtle, psychological expansion of screen time to create overwhelming emotional responses in the viewer. Early scenes of maggot-ridden meat that the Potemkin's sailors are expected to eat become an intricately threaded visual metaphor that will ultimately lead to a kind of “gag reflex” or revolt in the body of each sailor as well as the body of the masses. The film's rhythm is astounding: musical, pulsating, increasingly intense. Ultimately, the long sequence in which Cossacks massacre civilians on the Odessa steps—including a woman precariously holding on to a baby carriage—is so brilliantly orchestrated and edited that it has justifiably become one of the most often-cited bits of film in history. Aside from its general impact on movie history and editing theory, the Odessa steps sequence itself, complete with baby carriage, has been referred to and recreated in part by filmmakers such as Woody Allen (in Bananas) and Brian de Palma (The Untouchables). In his books Film Form and The Film Sense, Eisenstein writes fascinatingly about his theories of film editing, or “montage”; but instead of reading them you may just want to run The Battleship Potemkin for yourself a few dozen times; before long, the infinite possibilities of putting two pieces of film together to create an entirely new emotion will become apparent, as will the infinite, potential power of the medium. Note: the film is now in the public domain and has been released in many versions, some cut, some “time expanded” or “step printed” which can make the action look like its underwater, and many with different musical scores. None of the scores is necessary, and most are intrusive and counterproductive. Watch it silently, and discover the movies all over again.

NEXT STOP … Strike, Ten Days That Shook the World, The Battle of Algiers

1925 71m/B RU Alexander Antonov, Vladimir Barsky, Grigori Alexandrov, Mikhail Gomorov, Sergei Eisenstein; D: Sergei Eisenstein; W: Sergei Eisenstein; C: Eduard Tisse. VHS, LV REP, MRV, NOS