Battleship Potemkin [1925 film]

A classic of silent cinema, with an iconic scene of a massacre of civilians on the steps in the Black Sea port of Odessa during the 1905 Revolution. This incident is actually fictional, but all the best film-makers agree that you should never let the facts get in the way of a good story - or a stunning image.

Like many versions of 'Potemkin' circulating today, this film is drawn from the print prepared by the Soviet authorities in 1955 to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1905 Revolution. To that end, although the original titles are used, giving the composer of the score as Edward Miesel, the music on this film is lifted from the soundtrack of that print and consists of music by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was not specifically written for show more the film, but is drawn from a number of sources - however, the appositeness of the music used over the Odessa Steps sequence - from Shostakovich's Eleventh Symphony, which commemorates the 1905 Revolution - leads me to suspect that he may have started to write music for this new print of Potemkin, but either lost inspiration or got sidetracked onto other projects before finishing it. show less

A battleship crew is driven to mutiny and joins the Russian revolution.

I hate when movies want to make points instead of tell stories, so I'm never going to like a propaganda film. But even putting that aside, I still think this is extremely over-rated. There are no characters that survive the beginning of the movie. The story is insultingly simple-minded. And even the iconic massacre scene is so ridiculously over-the-top that it plays more as comedy than horror. "My baby! Won't somebody save my baby!"

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: F
Dialog: F
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: B

Enjoyment: D

GPA: 1.8/4

CHECK SHELVES

The propaganda message of the film is not simply "Communism good, Tsarism bad!" Marxist historians tended to play down the "Great Man" theory of history, arguing that historical events are brought about by impersonal economic forces rather than by great men, but this did not prevent Soviet propagandists, Eisenstein included, from idolising the Great Men of Communism, not only Marx and Engels but also Lenin and Stalin. "Battleship Potemkin", made a year after Lenin's death, subtly reinforces the idea of the Great Man. When the battleship puts to sea in the final scene it is clear that the mutinous sailors are not a disorganised rabble but are able to work together like parts of a machine, something emphasised by shots of the ship's show more machinery. Someone - we never learn who - is clearly giving them orders. Message to comrades: "Communism is not about anarchy! We might no longer have a Tsar but we still need leaders!" show less

Le Cuirassé « Potemkine » (en russe : Броненосец Потёмкин) est un film soviétique muet réalisé par Sergueï Eisenstein, sorti en 1925. Il traite de la mutinerie du cuirassé Potemkine dans le port d’Odessa en 1905, de l’insurrection et de la répression qui s’ensuivirent dans la ville. Il est choisi, en 1958, comme le meilleur film de tous les temps par un échantillon de 117 critiques internationaux lors de l’exposition universelle de Bruxelles. L’événement, qui a lieu pendant la Révolution russe de 1905, est ici vu comme précurseur de la révolution d'Octobre (1917) et est présenté du point de vue des insurgés. Le cuirassé reproduit, dans le microcosme de son équipage, les clivages de la show more société russe et ses inégalités. L’une des causes de la mutinerie est la question de la nourriture. Les officiers présentés comme cyniques et cruels contraignent l’équipage à consommer de la viande avariée, alors qu’eux-mêmes maintiennent un train de vie privilégié parmi l’équipage (scène de la vaisselle « Dieu, donne-moi mon pain quotidien »). La scène la plus célèbre du film est le massacre sur les marches de l’escalier monumental d’Odessa, où des soldats descendent d’une manière rythmée et machinale sur la foule en la bousculant. Le plan d’un landau qui dévale les marches utilise un travelling avant en plongée, façon de filmer révolutionnaire pour l’époque. show less