POTEMKIN is a film in which individual characters are much less important than the groups and crowds of which they are members, and it achieves its incredible power by showing the clash of the groups and crowds in a series of extraordinarily visualized and edited sequences. Amazingly, each of these sequences manage to top the previous one, and the film actually builds in power as it moves from the mutiny to the citizen's rally to the massacre on the Odessa steps--the latter of which is among the most famous sequences in all of film history. Filming largely where the real events actually occurred, director Eisenstein's vision is extraordinary as he builds--not only from sequence to sequence but from moment to moment within each sequence--some of the most memorable images ever committed to film.

To describe POTEMKIN as a great film is something of an understatement. It is an absolute essential, an absolute necessity to any one seriously interested in cinema as an art form, purely visual cinema at its most brilliant, often imitated, seldom equaled, never bested.


Good film, terrible DVD   January 20, 2004
 35 out of 35 found this review helpful

Most of the reviews posted here unfortunately review the film, not the product for sale. Little else can be said about Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein's masterpiece and one of the crown jewels of cinematic history. With all this positive karma, one would think that such a film would get a decent DVD release.

Unfortunately, Battleship Potemkin does not. Granted, the film itself is wonderful, and one of my all time favorites, but this DVD transfer does not do it justice. The famous musical score, banned in many countries at the time of its release, is absent, replaced with a tinny, bombastic score composed thirty years after the fact. The Odessa Steps sequence has also been severly mangled, omitting many of the shots which stuck in my mind the first time I viewed this film so long ago.

Do yourself a favor and buy a good VHS copy of this film until a good DVD comes along, hopefully from a big-name group like Kino Video or Criterion.


I Loathe Communism but This Movie is Great   September 25, 2003
 31 out of 63 found this review helpful

Sergei Eisenstein's (1898-1948) most memorable contribution to the craft of filmmaking undoubtedly is the concept of the montage along with other important editing techniques that are commonplace today. This director's first film, "Strike," concerning the brutal repression of a worker's strike by Czarist soldiers, led to more projects: "October," "Battleship Potemkin," "Old and New," and "Alexander Nevsky." He died of a heart attack before completing his last film, the historical epic "Ivan the Terrible." Unfortunately, Eisenstein's revolutionary (no pun intended) restructuring of the motion picture occurred in movies promoting communism. Eisenstein's films glorified the brutal regime founded by Vladimir Lenin and perpetuated by Uncle Joe Stalin, a regime that ultimately killed tens of millions of innocent souls. Watching an Eisenstein film fills me with a strange sensation: I despise the propaganda in this film, but at the same time, I cannot help connecting with this film on an emotional level. That emotional reaction, of course, is exactly what Eisenstein hoped to achieve with his projects.

"Battleship Potemkin" takes place during the tumultuous events of the 1905 Russian Revolution, the first revolutionary effort against the Czarist regime and the one that led to a grudging acceptance of a constitutional monarchy by the autocratic Romanov dynasty. This attempt to transform the decaying Russian state ultimately failed due to the ability of the monarch to dissolve the Duma anytime he chose to do so, and veto any legislation that this parliamentary body proposed. The Potemkin figures into this series of events because the sailors aboard the ship mutinied and threw their support to the revolutionaries. Nothing much happened after this event, as the sailors eventually docked the ship in Constanza, Romania and surrendered the boat in exchange for refuge. In the hands of master propagandist Eisenstein, however, the Potemkin incident morphs into a major event that led to the eventual abdication of Nicholas II in 1917.

Eisenstein seems to get most of the story straight: a piece of maggot infested meat serves as the final indignity to the sailors of the Potemkin. Under the leadership of one of the men on the ship, Vakulenchuk, the men protest to the captain about the squalid food. The result is Vakulenchuk's death and the revolt of the sailors. Seven officers die in the mutiny and the ship sails to Odessa, the Russian port on the Black Sea. There, the martyred Vakulenchuk's body lies in state where thousands of residents turn out to pay their respects. The people supply the sailors with food and the ship starts to sail off. Unfortunately, the regime sends in soldiers to quell the crowds gathering to see the dead sailor. Shots ring out, and thousands die under Czarist rifles. In the movie, the Potemkin retaliates by shelling the opera house in the city, supposedly the headquarters of the murderous soldiers. At this point, Eisenstein goes completely outside of the historical record by showing the Potemkin taking the offensive against the entire Black Sea fleet. Even more remarkably, the Potemkin convinces the fleet to join them in the revolt!

Sure, this movie is one long propaganda piece from start to finish, but it is an amazingly effective package of lies. The importance of class appears in the movie right from the start, when we see the sailors interact with the smug Czarist officers on the ship. The outpouring of citizens from the city to see Vakulenchuk's body turns into a recognition of class-consciousness by the outraged proletariats, who yell slogans like "One for all" and demand the ouster of the Czar. When the soldiers appear and begin to kill the people, we see Eisenstein in his element. These scenes are simply remarkable in the sheer emotional power of the murder of a young boy and a baby killed by a sword wielding Cossack. Close up shots of faces awash in ecstasy over the coming together of the crowd quickly contrast with the same faces expressing sheer horror over the slaughter of thousands of innocents. All of this cinematic glory is held together with a Shostokovich score of epic implications. You even get a slap at the Church in the form of a malevolent looking priest tapping a crucifix against the palm of his hand as the officers on the Potemkin form a firing squad. Few films pack this type of dramatic punch.

The montages really grab your attention. During the beginning of the movie, a boiling pot of soup conveys the larger sense of the emotional turmoil on the ship. When the Potemkin sails towards the Black Sea fleet, Eisenstein presents a sequence of shots showing the machinery of the ship pounding away as the showdown nears, probably in an attempt to express the powerful drive of revolutionary fervor. There are many more such images in the film, far too many to mention here. A big part of viewing an Eisenstein film is seeing how many symbolic images you can find. When you tire of playing this game with "Battleship Potemkin," watch "Alexander Nevsky" and look for all of the references to Germany. Eisenstein's film is a true classic in every sense of the word, and anyone even remotely interested in movies should watch it. I'm glad I did.


A LEGENDARY FILM BY A LEGENDARY FILM MAKER gets top treatment!   September 14, 2007
 30 out of 34 found this review helpful

The Battleship Potemkin uprising happened in June, 1905, when the ship's crew rebelled against their oppressive officers. It is usually regarded as one of the first leading events to the 1917 Russian Revolution.

This legendary film was produced in 1925 by Mosfilm, at the height of the silent cinema period and is, perhaps, the most famous example of the Soviet school of editing whose style and theories are deeply influential even today!

The film is divided in five episodes: "Men and Maggots" (showing the sailors revolting when forced to eat rotten meat), "Drama at the Harbor" (which shows the revolt being smashed and its leader killed), "A Dead Man Calls for Justice" (showing the people of Odessa crying the loss of the revolt's leader), "The Odessa Staircase" (showing the Army marching over the people - and killing them) and the final episode: "Rendez-Vous with the Squadron" which closes the film.

Now, the problem with BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN is that, being regarded as a masterpiece (like METROPOLIS, BIRTH OF A NATION, PANDORA'S BOX, INTOLERANCE and CABIRIA), it is also a work with a high degree of political content (like TRIUMPH OF THE WILL) and, like many of those films, it has been censored, cut, re-cut several times... until virtually none of the several circulating versions of it (most in public domain and lousy shape) meets the version made by Eisenstein.

Kino joined forces with the Deutsche Kinematek, the Russia's Goskinofilm, the British Film Institute, Bundesfilm Archive Berlin, and the Munich Film Museum in order to present this all new restoration. Shots have been replaced, and all 146 title cards restored to Eisenstein's specifications.

Edmund Meisel's definitive 1926 score, magnificently rendered by the 55-piece Deutches Filmorchestra in 5.1 Stereo Surround, returns Eisenstein's masterwork to a form as close to its creator's bold vision as has been seen since the film's 1925 Moscow premiere. In fact, a funny story goes that BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN opened in Moscow alongside ROBIN HOOD (the 1922 version with Douglas Fairbanks) and the Soviet government expected it would earn more money than the American film... representing the power and revitalization of Soviet cinema. It lost. (laughs) :p

Featuring on this double disc edition are:
1) "Tracing Battleship Potemkin," a 42-minute documentary on the making and restoration of the film.
2) The restored film with newly-translated English intertitles.
3) The restored film with original Russian intertitles (and optional English subtitles).
4) The original 1926 Edmund Meisel score, performed by the Deutsches Filmorchestra, presented in 5.1 Stereo Surround.
5) Photo gallery.

This film is a landmark in Film History and deserves to be seen by anyone who's serious about film making.


Great Classic Needs New Transfer Badly   January 27, 2007
 27 out of 34 found this review helpful

There is no reason to wait any longer for a better transfer of this classic. There was a Japanese laserdisc release fifteen years ago from a pristine film source; the intertitles were in Russian and Japanese (an interesting combination since the events of the film took place during the Russian-Japanese War of 1905). The opening sequence of water rushing over a diversionary dam, and of the sailors on their cots, is simply astoundingly better than any transfer we have seen released in America on any format. If the rumor is true of a 2004 digital remastering, we have waited three years too long for a quality DVD release. A film this great needs to be seen in the best transfer for its reputation to be understood by all. Eisenstein directed the details, and the better the transfer the more details will be seen. None of current DVD transfers are at all acceptable.