A breathe-taking and innovative film

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2009)

Silent cinema has a special delight because sometimes you can't express with dialog an idea that can be shown in a single frame. In "Battleship Potemkin" we find a young and inspired Eisenstein that wanted to do something for the upcoming anniversary of the October Revolution. The famous case of the rebel crew of the Potemkin and the Odessa massacre looked like the perfect plot for a director with unique vision. This film took Eisenstein to glory and to hatred. Why? Foreign film critics considered the film as a work of art (which it is) but the Russian people and politicians hated it because it gave "a bad image" of the USSR. After some good but forgotten films ("October" is a nice example), Eisenstein ran away from his detractors and finished his life filming some ambitious films in Mexico and Japan. Sergei became the European version of Orson Welles: no film of his after "Potemkin" became as famous or recognized. Something curious happens with this movie: every time you watch it you find something new and fascinating about it. After 20 times I watched it, I realized that not only is the finest editing work in the history of cinema, is one of the greatest and spectacular war films of all time. By the way, I read the trivia few days ago and I learned that it was Chaplin's favorite film. Now I understand why.