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Amazon.co.uk Review
Sergei Eisenstein's revolutionary sophomore feature has so long stood as a textbook example of montage editing that many have forgotten what an invigoratingly cinematic experience he created. A 20th-anniversary tribute to the 1905 revolution, Eisenstein portrays the revolt in microcosm with a dramatisation of the real-life mutiny aboard the battleship Potemkin. The story tells a familiar party-line message of the oppressed working class (in this case the enlisted sailors) banding together to overthrow their oppressors (the ship's officers), led by proto-revolutionary Vakulinchuk. When he dies in the shipboard struggle the crew lays his body to rest on the pier, a moody, moving scene where the citizens of Odessa slowly emerge from the fog to pay their respects. As the crowd grows Eisenstein turns the tenor from mourning a fallen comrade to celebrating the collective achievement. The government responds by sending soldiers and ships to deal with the mutinous crew and the supportive townspeople, which climaxes in the justly famous (and often imitated and parodied) Odessa Steps massacre. Eisenstein edits carefully orchestrated motions within the frame to create broad swaths of movement, shots of varying length to build the rhythm, close-ups for perspective and shock effect, and symbolic imagery for commentary, all to create one of the most cinematically exciting sequences in film history. Eisenstein's film is Marxist propaganda to be sure but the power of this masterpiece lies not in its preaching but its poetry. --Sean Axmaker
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60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eisenstein's masterpiece of cinema.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Battleship Potemkin [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Eisenstein's masterpiece film chronicles (partly fictitiously) the Russian naval mutiny at Odessa during the 1905 revolution. The memorable and acclaimed scene of the bloodshed on the Odessa Steps remains powerful to this very day, and many subsequent movies of varied content have paid homage to it. It is therefore ironic that this is the one notable event included within the film that never actually occurred, but it is the sequence which most vividly exposes the babarity of the Czarist authorities and also best illustrates the montage technique of film editing pioneered by Eisentstein and so influential upon the film-makers of both Europe and Hollywood.In deference to its origins (a commission from the Russian revolutionary leadership to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the 1905 Revolution), the film is unashamedly pure propaganda, but loses none of its cinematographic impact as a result. Indeed, the powerful imagery and effectiveness of its key sequences were so strong as to lead to its banning in many parts of the western world for many years (including Britain, the United States and France) and, indeed, in Russia, where there was a great fear that it may incite rebellion against Stalin's regime which history has come to show was every bit as inhumane and repressive as the imperial Czarist rule which the film condemns. For a long time, the picture was regarded by the luminaries of the world film industry as the greatest film ever made, more latterly surpassed by Orson Welles' Citizen Kane whose own original masterpiece is nevertheless clearly inspired by the techniques pioneered by Eisenstein in Battleship Potemkin. Like Citizen Kane, its general popularity has suffered as a result of a perceived intellectualness arising out of the praise lauded upon it from high and intelligent sources. As with Citizen Kane, many modern film lovers have never viewed it, regarding its highbrow reputation as rendering it inaccessible to them - but thankfully, more and more people have taken the plunge with both pictures and found themselves to be pleasantly surprised by the stirring and, indeed, entertaining content to be discovered within them. Long may that trend continue and I, for one, will continue to point all comers the way of this magnificent movie.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most famous film you have never seen,
By A Customer
This review is from: Battleship Potemkin [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Few people who have seen Battleship Potemkin remember that it is in black and white ("But I could see the blood on the steps") or silent ("The shouting crowd, the gunshots"). This is testament to the film's power. Made in 1925 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1905 revolution, this film is, on the face of it, a standard propaganda film. So motivating, it was used on a Soviet ship to motivate an anti-establishment mutiny in the dying days of the Soviet Union. However, like so much of Eisenstein's work it is multi-layered. Yes, the sailors are victorious, but the citizens of Odessa are massacred and we know that the revolution ultimately failed. There is an overwhelming feeling of sadness and futility as we watch the ship sail off victorious into the sunset - Stalin disapproved of it for this reason. Overall, a film everyone should see, not just because it's so much an icon of the Communist era in the Soviet Union, but because it's so well-done, so gripping, so expressive and so memorable in its own right.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Propaganda, and it works...,
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This review is from: Battleship Potemkin [1925] [DVD] (DVD)
The 1925 silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein presents a glorious Soviet version of the Battleship Potemkin uprising, which took place in 1905 when the crew of a Russian battleship rebelled against their oppressive officers.
Potemkin is by rights of its directorial quality and images one of the most influential films of all time. It is composed of 5 episodes and as a revolutionary propaganda film. The Soviet filmmakers were experimenting what effect film editing can have on audiences so as to produce the greatest emotional response. Eisenstein cut it in such a way that the viewer's emotional response would automatically produce sympathy for the rebellious sailors of the Battleship Potemkin and hatred for their commanders. Like all propaganda films characters are caricatured to achieve poignancy. The most famous of such a scene is the massacre on the Odessa Steps with the pram rolling down. The massacre is entirely fictional, created by Eisenstein for added drama, to denounce the Czar's regime. Many of the techniques tried and used by Eisenstein and his colleagues have been used ever since in film-making. Notably influenced at the time was Leni Riefenstahl. This version shows the completely restored film, with many previously excised sequences re-inserted and correct translations from the Russian. Beware of the myth as history though when watching! Times and presepctives of history change, as was made clear when I visited Lidvadia Palace in the Crimea, many photos of the Czar with visiting regiments were hung in the rooms. The guide said: "Imagine the Russian President posing with every visiting regiment now. Impossible!" This is a very good quality DVD compared to when I saw this film in the 1960's. A must for all who love cinema.
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