Seminal, yes; great, yes; the Greatest, no!

Rating: 9/10 (25 March 2004)

Eisenstein himself didn't even consider it his greatest film. He preferred "Ivan the Terrible".
However, If one takes Eisenstein's three acknowledged masterpieces, "Potemkin", "Alexander Nevsky" and "Ivan" as a group it is difficult to come up with another director who deserves mention in the same breath.
His cutting techniques were revolutionary and his visual compositions were pirated by everyone from Orson Wells in "Citizen Kane" to Milius in "Conan the Barbarian" (er, pardon me for putting it on the same page).