Historic and great

Rating: 8/10 (21 August 2018)

Odessa, 1905. The crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin mutiny against their uncaring, sadistic officers and take over the ship. The mutiny starts an uprising against the tsarist government among the people of Odessa. However, the government sends a squadron of warships to bring the crew of the Potemkin to heel. Things look grim for the crew.
Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin is not just a landmark film in history, for its cinematic innovations, but a great film full stop. Great action, empathetic characters and plot and a fantastic cliff-hanger at the end.
Eisenstein's main contribution to cinematic development was 'Soviet montage theory': through clever editing, the viewer is drawn into and carried along with the scene. A great example of this in Battleship Potemkin is the soldiers vs townsfolk scene on the steps. Through dozens of mini-scenes within the main scene, the dynamism, panic and horror of the situation are conveyed to the audience.