Film Review: The Battleship Potemkin

The Battleship Potemkin is a film that emerged as an iconic masterpiece during the Silent-Era. Directed and edited by Russian Sergei Eisenstein in 1925, 'Potemkin' (as it is commonly known) was a revolutionary piece of work within the realm of the montage editing theory. While the entire film is not strictly montage editing, the majority of the film exemplifies the technique in the truest form.

Potemkin is a propaganda film that metaphorically attributes respect to the Russian Revolution, the fall of the monarchy and the rise of communism. The film begins with a mutiny on board the Battleship Potemkin as a result of the injustice placed on the crew in the form of spoiled meat. When the crew refuses to consume the rotten meat, the captain tries to force them to do so. The mutiny breaks out on deck, and the word quickly spreads to the shore and the public begins to feel inclined to the revolutionary sentiment. The monarchy, like the ship's commanding officers have taken advantage of their subjects. The population decides to revolt, but they are soon subjected to a massacre. On the Odessa staircase, soldiers fire on the revolting crowd and quiet down the population's zeal. All the while, the Potemkin is awaiting its final confrontation with the royal fleet. The question that arises is whether other ship's crews will join them or attack them. The end is a triumph for the Potemkin when other naval vessels join their cause and the government has seemingly been out ruled.

Because the director of this film, Eisenstein also served as editor, the film ultimately resulted as his exclusive envisioning. This probably made the film stronger and more persuasive because it had a clear message. The shot composition, story and editing can all be attributed to Eisenstein for the making of the Potemkin. I believe that his overseeing of the entire production process actually strengthened the outcome of this film, without it, there would be more confusion and uncertainties in the storyline.

Eisenstein is considered one of the early pioneers of the montage editing theory. He encapsulates this process throughout Potemkin by metaphorically editing dissimilar shots together. At the beginning of the film, we see a prolonged sequence of waves crashing upon a dock and rocks. The edits are quick, repeated and full of movement. Eisenstein's purpose in this approach was to demonstrate, through montage, what kind of friction and collisions the film would contain in story, character development and even the editing itself. 'He reveled in the possibilities of juxtaposition, placing images in rhythmic succession to create meaning (in theory) and powerful feelings (in practice)' (Hilditch). The film moves on to the Battleship and its crew. We see the unjust treatment of the sailors by the commanding officers in the form of verbal abuse and a lack of a good supply of food. The juxtaposition of images of raw, spoiled meat and the growing tension among faces of the crew members leads viewers to support the sentiments of the sailors. As the uprising on the Potemkin begins, there are clear suggestions as to the unworthiness of the officers. We see several shots of the ship's doctor, who is a small man, and at first the shots are from below him, where he seems to have a sense of authority. But, as the sailors gain confidence in their rights, the shots of the doctor eventually change to him at the bottom of a staircase and then off the edge of the boat. The same is true with the ship's priest, who despite his frightful appearance, seems to lose his place of honor as he lowers his cross as a weapon.

The news of the mutiny reaches the Odessa shore when Vakulinchik, the mutiny's leader is killed and transported to shore in an almost royalty form. The most memorable sequence in the movie for me is when the people begin to arrive to observe the dead body of Vakulinchik. Eisenstein takes nothing more than shots of crowds walking toward the docks from all corners of the city, but he makes it so compelling it gives you goose bumps. Or as Nick Hilditch of BBC says: "The effect of this triumph of tempo over plot is an audience ready to yell out 'Death to the oppressors!'" The sequencing of the march to the shore gives the audience a sense of wishing to join the crowd, even though the crowd is on screen. The editing of this scene (not to mention the amount of people Einstein recruited) gives you the feeling you are the only person who has not joined the fight.

The next part of the movie is the considered one of the most famous in film history. The 'Odessa Steps' is essentially the "show of horror, violence and savagery where innocents are slaughtered and the spirit of the people is both temporarily quashed and inevitably martyred" (Paulapalooza). Eisenstein demonstrates the harsh rule of the monarchy in this quick, epic battle sequence that takes an uprising to an exciting level and then unjustly has them crushed by an impending army who "has no faces" (Ebert). Eisenstein accomplished this fiction battle so well that Roger Ebert, a revered movie critic of our time, states

Eisenstein, in concentrating those killings and finding the perfect setting for them, was doing his job as a director. It is ironic that he did it so well that today, the bloodshed on the Odessa Steps is often referred to as if it really happened.

Eisenstein accomplishes his goal so well mainly because of his technique. His sharp and rigid contrasting of lines and images he maintains throughout the sequence is a landmark of visual editing. It is brutal, horrific and most of all unforgiving. Einstein wanted to make his opinion known, and his blunt editing made that possible for him.

The Battleship Potemkin ends with the sailors aboard the Potemkin gaining allies aboard other naval ships. The figurative narrative of the Russian Revolution ends with the beginning of the revolution. And Einstein once again makes this visually comprehensible in his soft, happy ending that I can't help but view as a classical Western ending. As the Potemkin (and the rest of the czarist navy) sails into the sunset of a bright new Russian future, so Sergei Eisenstein entered the realm of respected filmmakers by mastering the art of storytelling and montage editing.

Works Cited

Paulapalooza. The Battleship Potemkin. 'EFilmCritic.com.' Australia, 2006.

http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=2377&reviewer=21>

Ebert, Roger. The Battleship Potemkin. 'RogerEbert.com' 2006.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980719/REVIEWS08/401010302/1023>

Hilditch, Nick. The Battleship Potemkin. 'bbc.co.uk.' Great Britain, Sep. 11, 2006.