Impressive, moving and rewarding

Rating: 9/10 (29 April 2006)

Whispered at like some urban legend, 'Battleship Potemkin' is a film epic in the grandest sense. A shame that its influence has permeated so much of film today but that it seems to be seen by few outside of film schools. I'm from the non-film school group, but I know from other films that they have drawn on images and sequences in 'Battleship Potemkin.' To name just three:
1)Extreme close-ups: Eisenstein's use of extreme close-ups are wonderful. He'll zoom in on the face of cruel officers. As a propaganda film he needs to exaggerate the menace and it works extremely well in helping to create sympathy for the sailors. Later during the Odessa Stairs massacre, his close-ups of panicked, helpless and fleeing civilians is heart-wrenching. If you've ever watched Sergio Leone's films (especially 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,' or 'Once Upon a Time in the West') you'll see the obvious influence.
2)Editing: There are almost twice as many shots in 'Battleship Potemkin' as there were in contemporary American films. What this meant was rapid fire switches from shot to shot that the MTV generation would approve of. Also, Eisenstein was somewhat unusual in this film's editing because editing for the most part is used to shorten time. Eisenstein was trying to connect an earlier historical even with a later one; his editing extends time.
3)Odessa Steps: One of the best and most suspenseful moments in Brian De Palma's 'The Untouchables' is the staircase scene with the baby carriage. That is a tribute to 'Battleship Potemkin' and a longer and similar sequence in it. Czarist troops descend on Odessa and are planning to punish the citizenry for the aid it has lent to the battleship. People flee chaotically down the stairs while the soldiers march as one behind them pausing only to fire into the crowd with their rifles. It is a visually stunning sequence highlighted from both technical and emotional standpoints. Technically, the cuts from shot to shot are panic-stricken and rapid. Eisenstein has an early establishing shot to show the size of the stairs and the number of people fleeing. From there the camera moves directly into the action focusing on individual characters: a woman with an umbrella, a man with no legs, a woman and her little boy, a group led by an old woman who hide at the side of the staircase and a young mother with a baby in a carriage at the top of the stairs.... Eisenstein's manipulation of the footage is nothing short of brilliant. I'll not describe anything else from the 'Odessa Steps Massacre' and add only that it is tremendously moving. All of the characters listed above are "rebels" and all are dealt with by the soldiers.
In my mind, 'Battleship Potemkin' suffers only from the fact that it is so heavy-handedly a propaganda film. Its extolling of soviet values may strike some as too hard to swallow. That said, it is an utter masterpiece and if you are serious about film at all (or if you just want to see where De Palma got his idea!) 'Battleship Potemkin' is essential viewing. It rightly belongs in the IMDb top 250. At the time of this reviews writing, it is mysteriously NOT in the top 250. Aside from the hokey 'brotherhood prevails' message at the end and the heavy propaganda, I think the film has an audience out there today that would respond favourably to it if they only took the time to seek out the film and watch it. If this review convinces even one person to take that time my job is done.