Battleship Potemkin

Sergei Eisenstein, USSR, 1925, 65 minutes

Despite the fact that it has been subjected to exhaustive criticism and analysis Eisenstein's best known film retains its capacity to emotionally stir the viewer.

A prime example of Eisenstein's montage theory of editing, where neutral, separate shots come together to create something more wholly meaningful, Battleship Potemkin recounts the story of the Kronstadt navy mutiny which inspired the 1905 revolution.

In the absence of dialogue Eisenstein was freed from the difficulties of endowing characters with psychological depth instead turning to the use of rigid types whose class and political affiliations could be made clear by what they looked like and whose emotions were expressed in bold physical gestures and exaggerated facial contortions. Hence in the famous Odessa Steps sequence the shawl-clad mother clasping her son, murdered by the soldiers, articulates her rage with a wide-eyed expressionist howl towards the camera.

Apart from the well-known apects of Eisenstein's art - montage editing put to an overtly political use - it's worthwhile considering the enormous scale of the production and the film-making system that enabled a director to temporarily mobilize and command the Russian fleet and thousands upon thousands of extras who were, after all, just ordinary Russian people.

Battleship Potemkin is possibly as fast moving, exciting, and utterly committed a piece of film-making as you will ever see.

Review by Iain Harral
Taken from EUFS Programme 1995-96