Silent Trend-Setter

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 1998)

Eisenstein's film about an episode in the Russian Revolution is one of the most famous films of all time and still one which surprisingly few people have actually seen.
Undoubtedly, we have here a piece of propaganda cinema: the film maker is clearly on the side of the common soldiers rebelling against their aristocratic and bourgeois officers and exploiters. This may put some people off, but notice that this is more open and honest in its approach than many western films of the cold war era in which the outcome (who's the good guy?) is as predictable as it is here but in which the viewer is fooled into thinking that it is not.
The reason Battleship Potemkin is famous is not because of the acting performances: most actors weren't even professionals and the acting is quite often outrageously over the top, although it is fair to say that this is a problem of many silent movies. No, the reasons this is a famous film are (i) the clever use of editing, and (ii) the even cleverer use of imagery. The perhaps most famous scene of the film shows a deserted pram hobbling down the stairs. It is a symbol of the violence against civilians that just preceded it and in its way it is even more powerful than the actual act itself. The film is full of such symbols, probably too many for a 1990s audience, but back then it was new and it left a deep impression on its contemporaries and it proved to be highly influential on film makers.