A "Revolutionary" Movie

Rating: 5/10 (2 September 2009)

The necessary prerequisite for watching this silent classic is, of course, that you understand that it's a piece of communist propaganda, produced in the Soviet Union in 1925 as Stalin was solidifying his hold on power. (In fact, I thought the actor who played Vakulinchuk - the hero of the mutineers - even looked a bit like Stalin, probably deliberately, since it wouldn't hurt Stalin's image to be associated with the movie's hero, although it is interesting that Stalin was not always a great supporter of director Sergei Eisenstein's work or of his views on communism.)
The first half of the movie is very strong. Opening with a quote from Lenin glorifying revolution in general, the story begins with the crew of the Potemkin being given rotten, maggot-infested meat to eat. Along with other brutal treatment and the contempt with which they were treated by their officers, everything leads up to a mutiny by the sailors, as they turn viciously on their officers and take over the ship. One could read into this a warning about the dangers of revolution - revolutionaries can become just as vicious and oppressive toward those who used to be their oppressors, as the oppressors were in the first place! (That might be deliberate, since part of Eisenstein's problem with Stalin was founded in his belief that film-makers should have creative freedom - hardly what Stalin wanted to offer them!) The first half of the movie very effectively builds sympathy from the viewer about conditions for the Potemkin's crew, and the mutiny itself was very well portrayed. The first half would surely gain an 8/10.
Unfortunately, this movie is nowhere near as strong in the second half. There are very long stretches of basically nothing from about the 35 minute mark on. In very long scenes, the people of Odessa stream to the pier to pay homage to the sailors, the people of Odessa flee from the authorities as they attempt to re-establish control and the sailors wait for what could be a titanic confrontation with ships from a Russian squadron obviously sent to get things under control. There really was very little that interested me in the second half of the movie and, of course - given the propaganda purpose of the movie - the crew of the Potemkin are portrayed in the end as glorious victors, whereas in reality they ended up having to surrender to authorities in Romania, having accomplished little except giving Eisenstein a great story that could be easily twisted into propaganda by the Soviet Union.
Overall, based largely on that very strong first half, I'd give this a 5/10.