applicable to even today's world issues

Rating: 8/10 (1 September 2010)

Like the other features in the box set, Battleship Potemkin opens with an epigraph by communist leader Joseph Stalin about revolution being the only justifiable war, the film's rebellious undertones and convictions of equality are immediately embedded from the get go.
Eisenstein's montages depicting the masses is a crown bejewelled with sparkling moments as the dust settles - only for this to be disturbed and gears changed to quick cut-away and repetitive shots to further elevate our own sympathy towards both the crowd and the sailors. The contrast of the sweeping and panning montages captures the true chaos and power of a crowd that produces feelings of claustrophobia, as well as a close bond towards the nameless faces we have come to recognise.
In a way, events that shaped the noughties, such as the war on terror and the conflicts arising in the middle east over the Taliban's restriction of human rights, contain themes, dilemmas and strife that make the film's core values applicable to even today's world issues, whatever an individual's beliefs.