Battleship Potemkin

Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin) (1925)

Runtime: 72 minutes

Directed by: Sergei Eisenstein

Starring: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barsky, Grigori Aleksandrov, Ivan Bobrov, Mikhail Gomorof

From: Mosfilm

Among all the classic, highly-regarded film directors of the past, many have been sampled by me at least once; however, Sergei Eisenstein was a blind spot. There's no anti-Russia or anti-Soviet Union bias; I just put off this task despite the knowledge that one scene in particular is still influential now, 101 years later.

The Odessa Steps scene is powerful now, in 2026. Tsar soldiers massacre citizens who are in a fervor against the government; this includes a young boy and most famously, a mother's death causes a baby in a carriage to roll down the stairs. De Palma most famously paid homage to this but everyone from Spielberg & Lucas to Gilliam & Johnnie To have as well. 

That said, the movie is more than just one scene; erroneously, I assumed all these years Odessa Steps was the finale-oh, no. The plot itself isn't convoluted: loosely based on an actual 1905 incident, the Soviet government asked Eisenstein to make this into propaganda, the sailors on the titular ship reached their breaking point with the awful conditions on the ship, especially the maggot-riddled meat—ewww. They rebel and the consequences resulted in the citizens of Odessa to reach that fervor.

I've never been to film school so a concise explanation of such concepts as montages, the Kuleshov Effect, and Soviet Montage Theory-however, Wiki actually has extensive articles on these concepts-yet I can say that the editing and montages here are still powerful now and still tell its story well in a movie with a limited amount of intertitles. Those components were huge assets in creating the right emotions for the viewers: admiration for the citizens, a loathing for the tyrannical government. 

Battleship Potemkin is homework for the cinephile and those learning to become a filmmaker; it also transcends the feeling of “boring, scholarly study” & can simply be enjoyed for its plot & themes... themes that unfortunately still resonate today. The film was viewed by a copy on YouTube; it wasn't the special version released last year w/ a score from... The Pet Shop Boys?! My ignorance of the act beyond their radio hits was why I was surprised—rave reviews mean that I'd be down with hearing their score one day.