Battleship Potemkin.

Review #1322: Battleship Potemkin.

Cast: 
Aleksandr Antonov (Grigory Vakulinchuk), Vladimir Barsky (Commander Golikov), Grigori Aleksandrov (Chief Officer Giliarovsky), I. Bobrov (Young sailor flogged while sleeping), Mikhail Gomorov (Militant sailor), Aleksandr Levshin (Petty Officer), N. Poltavseva (Woman with pince-nez), Lyrkean Makeon (The Masked Man), and Konstantin Feldman (Student agitator) Directed by Sergei Eisenstein.

Review: 
Yes, it only figures to pick a film as notably subversive as this one for 1925 in Tribute to the Decades. Despite any biases I may display towards communism (and countries that practiced it then and now, which applies especially to China), I did not let that get in the way of saying that this is a good film. I may indulge a line or two occasionally about my gripes with left/right-wing politics trying to seep their way into films where it does not belong (such as with the recent Academy Award for Best Picture nominees), but it generally should not serve as some sort of key reason I don't like a film. Enjoy the review.

The middle of the decade continued the run of plenty of notable classic films across cinema. Ben-Hur became the biggest hit of the year (alongside being the most expensive silent film ever made). The Gold Rush proved to be the best comedy hit of the year (along with arguably being one of the greatest comedies ever). Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack (who went on to co-direct classics such as King Kong) collaborated for the first time with Grass (1925), which followed a tribe in Persia. But it isn't hard to deny the power of a certain Soviet feature when it comes to its place among world cinema. What can one really say about a revolutionary film like this? It is the kind of film that fits the film school circuit as an example of what one can do with editing and montage, where the focus is not so much an individual but the collective as a whole, which one would expect from a Soviet production meant to inspire the masses with its own form of propaganda, which led to bans in numerous countries (including the Soviet Union itself). Eisenstein had directed his first film eight months earlier with Strike, which dealt with a factory strike in 1903 that used animals as metaphors for the condition of numerous individuals. It was made to commemorate twenty years since the mutiny of the battleship Potemkin, which had already been dramatized in 1906 named La révolution en Russie, which ran for four minutes. The film is not meant to be a complete re-telling of the story of the mutiny, as one could expect from a dramatization. If that were true, one would have to show scenes of the Russian fleet being unable to capture the ship around the Black Sea (to the point where Emperor Nicolas II called the attempts "difficult and shameful story") before Romania gave the sailors asylum, with the ship itself left nearly sunk with the Romanian flag on before it was renamed the Panteleimon before being turned into scrap metal prior to production. If you want to be even more pedantic, the famous Odessa massacre on the steps sequence never happened in real life either, instead being used for dramatic effect, although it should be noted that it was inspired by a massacre that occurred five months before the mutiny and demonstrators. The point of the film was to inspire passion and thought with its montage, where the focus is on the images and not so much on the mostly amateur actors (although Aleksandrov would become noted for his later directorial work). One will likely find themselves wrapped up in the drama of the mutineers and at least pick up the urge to research more about it (along with other various revolving topics, but that's another story). It definitely doesn't get in the way of viewing the Odessa sequence, which is easily the highlight that can be dissected on the most on its rhythm of delivering such emotional intensity without missing a beat, with its influence being seen quite clearly in other films to follow (such as The Untouchables). There are plenty of images one could highlight that stand out (such as the sequence involving the raising of a red flag to thunderous music), but the shot of the baby carriage rolling down the steps is the most obvious one to go with when talking about the punch the film can pull. There are plenty of great films out there that stand out for their entertainment value or their innovation in style and form, and this is one that stands for the latter category with pride, where it isn't surprising that numerous publications found it one of the greatest films ever made for several decades. For the curious at heart when it comes to wanting to view films beyond American ones, this would likely prove a fine one to consider (particularly since it is readily available to find on the Internet), alongside the curiosity for silent films for the decade.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.