Battleship Potemkin (1925)

 

Film: Battleship Potemkin

Director: Sergei Eisenstein

Country: Russia

Released: December 1925

Runtime: 75 minutes

Genre: Drama

Studio: Mosfilm

Influenced: Dovzhenko, David O. Selznick, Brian de Palma, George Lucas, Tony Scott

Set in the summer of 1905, Battleship Potemkin tells the story of Russian resistance against the tsar, as played out by the heroic mutineers of the Potemkin, as well as the plucky citizens of Odessa and the sailors of other boats among the Russian fleet. It was an event that proved to be a catalyst for the subsequent Russian Revolution of 1917-18, with the film commissioned to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of this 1905 revolution. From a cinematic point of view, however, the film's plot and propagandistic aims are far less important than Eisenstein's revolutionary use of montage.

We see the sailors mutiny over rations, causing the people of Odessa to rally around them, which in turn leads to the tsar's army being sent in to quell the rebellion. On the Odessa Steps – the most famous scene in the film – civilians are indiscriminately killed by the tsar’s troops. The battleship uses its guns to avenge the slaughter and then sails to face the tsar’s fleet. In essence, the plot is lightweight, but the montage scene on the steps would go on to transform cinema for all time.

Eisenstein uses montage to varying effect in the film. There are unintentionally hilarious moments, like the drama on deck which abruptly cuts to a shot of what looks like a toy ship in a bath tub. But much of the montage works well, presenting a series of dramatic and iconic images: God with a shock of white hair holding a cross, the glasses left over after a naval officer is thrown into the sea, occasional shots of weeping old ladies, the mother screaming after her little boy is shot dead, the pram going down the Odessa Steps, and the triumphant ending with sailors waving their hats onboard.

Eisenstein's aggressive editing gives the film a strong sense of propulsion, and this accounts for its powerful effect on audiences and critics at the time (and since). Nothing like it had been seen before. Another innovation was the use of one colour image at the end of the film – the red Russian flag that is raised over the battleship. For a full account of the film's evolution and various restorations over time, I recommend the documentary below.