Battleship Potemkin - Sergei Eisenstein
This is a propaganda film that starts with the crew of the battleship standing up for better food. This leads to a city standing with them and ultimately leads to the victory of the common man against their oppressors.
The terrible food is rotten meat that is made into borsch that the sailors refuse to eat. The officers of the ship decide to execute the crew in response.
There is a massive fight on board and the sailors win with the death of Vakulinchuk one of the key leaders of the uprising.
They lay him to rest on the port in Odessa with a message of how he died on his body. The body becomes a shrine and the people unite against the tyranny and take supplies out the the ship.
The military turns on the town and massacres the civilians. Potemkin comes to their aid and lays waste on the political and upper-class buildings.
A fleet is sent against the Potemkin and the crew appeals to the crews of the other vessels to join them. They do and the film ends.
As a propaganda film, it stands the test of time pretty well. The narrative structure is fine and makes sense.
It is very of its time and you can see that the film-makers are still learning their craft. It is very different from Western propaganda films in that the message isn’t over the top.
The message is clear and on the surface but it is what the story is about. This is what makes this so different from Western propaganda films. The massacre of Odessa is full-on.
Like many of the films of this period, there is a general issue of pacing. They often spend too long on a single scene.
The rotten meat at the start is a great example of this. We know the meat is rancid as soon as we see the maggots. We do not need to see it any further.
The best scenes are where the message of the film comes to the fore as a key part of the story.
When the firing squad is about to shoot those who didn’t like the borsch Vakulinchuk speaks up and asks the soldiers who are they shooting at. There are also some very weird moments as well.
When Odessa is debating what to do about the poor treatment of the sailors a random bloke yells out “Smash the Jews”. He promptly gets smashed. It just felt very out of place—a great piece of history and interesting filmmaking but not a great film.
