Battleship Potemkin (film)

• Release Date: 1925
• Director(s): Sergei Eisenstein
• Writer(s): N. F. Agadzhanova-Shutko; Sergei Eisenstein
• Principal Actors and Roles: Grigori Aleksandrov (Chief Officer Giliarovsky); Aleksandr Antonov (Grigory Vakulinchuk); Vladimir Barsky (Commander Golikov)

Battleship Potemkin is a classic Russian silent movie filmed in black and white. The Russian title is Bronenosets Potyomkin. Director Sergei Eisenstein was asked to make a film to honor the twentieth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. He planned to make an eight-part series; instead he ended up focusing on the 1905 mutiny on the Potemkin.

The film became a landmark in filmmaking techniques, as well as making an enormous impact on its audiences. Posters for the movie said that 300,000 people viewed it in its first three weeks. The film, with its story of the mutiny and subsequent massacre, was banned in many countries, including the United States, Great Britain, France, and, after a time, in the Soviet Union. It was believed that it had such a strong emotional impact that it would influence people to riot. The film was heavily censored in other countries and the title cards were often changed to eliminate the inflammatory language.

It took only a week to shoot the film and twelve days to edit it. When Eisenstein edited, he developed a new technique he called montage. He set contrasting images against each other for maximum emotional effect.

Most of the cast were not professional actors and were ordinary people chosen for their physical appearance. Professionals were cast in some of the roles. A stage actor played the role of Vakulinchuk, the mutiny’s leader and an actor and film director played the captain of the ship.

Many of the film’s important events were based on actual events: The real crew of the Potemkin was incited to mutiny because of maggots in the meat, the ship flew a red flag after the mutiny, and the people of Odessa did crowd the docks to mourn the dead sailor. However, the slaughter on the Odessa steps did not happen as a result of the Potemkin’s arrival, although Russian soldiers did kill innocent people in Odessa and elsewhere.

Plot

In Act One, "Men and Maggots," the sailors on the battleship Potemkin discover maggots in the meat hanging outside the galley. The doctor says the maggots can be washed away with brine and there is no reason for them to complain. Many of the men refuse to eat their borscht soup, which was made with the rotten meat. One sailor, Vakulinchuk, says even Russian prisoners in Japan are treated better and they should do something about it.

Act Two is "Drama on the Deck," where the captain calls everyone up to the deck and says that he will hang those who are disobedient. Those who ate the borscht are to step away from the rest. When only a small group remains, the captain orders them to be covered with a canvas and shot. As the riflemen take aim, Vakulinchuk says, "Brothers! Who are you shooting at?" No one shoots, and he rallies everyone to mutiny. The sailors manage to overpower the officers and throw them overboard. They celebrate their victory until they discover that Vakulinchuk is dead, shot by an officer.

In Act Three, "A Dead Man Calls for Justice," the sailors raise the red flag of communism and head for Odessa, where they arrange Vakulinchuk’s body inside a tent on the docks. The body holds a candle and sign saying that he died for a bowl of borscht. The people of Odessa stream onto the docks in support of the dead man and others sail out to the Potemkin with food.

Act Four is the famous scene, "The Odessa Staircase." Men, women, and children from the town have gathered on the wide steps leading down to the docks. A line of soldiers suddenly appears across the top of the steps and they march down, shooting everyone as they progress. When the mother of a wounded child tries to pass, they shoot her, too. A baby carriage hurtles down the steps after the mother is killed. People try to flee but are cut down by Cossacks on horses at the bottom of the steps.

"Rendezvous with the Squadron" is the final act, Act Five. The battleship fires on the buildings where the Tsarist government is located and destroys them. The Potemkin then heads out to sea, knowing the admiral’s fleet will be sent to punish them. They agree unanimously to meet the fleet head on and everyone goes to battle stations when the fleet is spotted. The Potemkin signals the other ships to join them as brothers, but all weapons are trained on their ship. However, the weapons are lowered and the crews wave and cheer as the Potemkin passes through the fleet.

Significance

Battleship Potemkin was selected as the greatest film of all time at the 1958 Brussels World Fair. American silent film stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford considered it to be the greatest film ever made and brought it to the United States in private showings.

Battleship Potemkin has had a profound impact on filmmaking. The massacre on the Odessa steps is often considered the most famous sequence in film history and has been copied in many films, including the 1987 film The Untouchables, which included a climactic shootout with a runaway baby carriage on the steps.

The film is notable for Eisenstein’s montage editing technique, in which he quickly juxtaposes contrasting shots for emotional effect. The viewer’s mind makes connections that would not have the same weight within a straight narrative scene. In the Odessa Steps sequence, for example, a shot of the marching soldiers’ feet is contrasted with a baby carriage plunging down the steps. The camera cuts to a screaming woman, back to the baby carriage, and back to the woman who now has been shot in the eye. The montage technique produces a rhythm to the film that would not otherwise be present.

Another innovative technique Eisenstein used was that of having no individual character to follow within the movie. Instead, he used individuals as symbols of the whole. Battleship Potemkin is a story of the people, not of a person; or as Eisenstein said, the mass is the hero.

Austrian composer Edmund Meisel’s score adds greatly to the film’s impact. Eisenstein’s input resulted in a score that is rhythmic and insistent, rather than melodic and conventional.

The film was frequently cut, censored, reordered, and given new titles. New music, sound effects, and even dialogue were recorded for various reissues. It was not until 2005 that the film was reconstructed to be as close to the original as possible, with Meisel’s accompanying original score.

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