Movie Odyssey Review #014.1

Rating: Null/10 (26 July 2006)

#014.1 - Battleship Potemkin (1925) - released in Russia 12/21/25; viewed previously
DOUG: I'd like to say a quick word about this Eisenstein film which we watched in Film Expression class, and were shown it again more recently in our History of Silent Film class (I slept through most of it, as I did with nearly every film we watched in that class, no matter how good). Eisenstein was, of course, a pioneer of film montage, and this film contains one of his best sequences, the famous 'Odessa Steps' sequence which follows a baby carriage rolling down the stairs followed by the oppressive Tsarist soldiers. The subject of Soviet Montage is always a key topic in any Film History class, and while it was important, a lot of my classmates have come to hate it, and feel scarred from being subjected to this and other Eistenstein films (a friend of mine jokingly called Soviet Montage "Throwing a bunch of random scenes together and calling it a film.") We decided we didn't need to re-watch this film for our Odyssey, since we would just be waiting for the Steps scene, and we've got plenty more Eisenstein to look forward to.
KEVIN: I watched Sergei Eisenstein's seminal masterpiece Potemkin freshmen year in college in our Development of Film Expression class. Eisenstein's films are certainly not for the squeamish. It wasn't ever enough for him just to get across what happened. He seemed to want the viewer to be completely immersed in the action and the drama, and he achieved this through an unparalleled use of camera-work, editing, and harrowing depictions of the most graphic imagery ever captured on film for years after. None of his films demonstrate his style as perfectly as Potemkin. It's been years since I watched this film, and most of it I've forgotten, except of course the unforgettable Odessa Steps sequence, which is often regarded as Eisenstein's crowning achievement of film-making. I watched it yet again in another film class, and I managed to sleep through most of it, waking up just in time to see the Odessa Steps. What I stayed awake for I still managed to forget.
Last film chronologically: The Big Parade (1925). Next film chronologically: The Black Pirate (1926).