Summary and Analysis

Rating: 6/10 (28 April 2011)

The Battleship Potemkin begins headed to Odessa in 1905. Aboard are many sailors returning from the war with Japan. Each scene is titled, and the first one is called "Part 1: Men and Maggots". This is a perfect title because it shows the men who look a little bit worn out, and then the food they are about to eat. It is a large piece of meat hanging in the dining hall with no refrigeration. The camera gets an up close shot to reveal that there are maggots crawling all over the piece of meat. This disgusts the sailors, but the doctor insists it is okay and nothing to worry about. The sailors disapprove and decide to rebel. This caused the officers (who were very well taken care of) to attempt to execute the sailors that had caused trouble. They were about to fire when a sailor named Vakulinchuk speaks up. He gives a motivational talk and asks everybody on board whose side they were on. As they lower their guns, an officer grabs it to try to fire, but this only caused chaos to break out. The only person that ended up getting shot was Vakulinchuk. Once they become docked and anchored at Odessa, the townspeople come out to give honor to Vakulinchuk. The shot shows streams of people and it seems never ending. This invokes a feeling of togetherness and pride. During this, a group of Czar soldiers appear and start firing on the crowd, including children, women, and the elderly. The sailors realize that this was going to turn into a bigger fight and turn the ship around to face opposing ships head-on. Once they get closer though, they realize it is fellow sailors. This film has some historical facts in it, and proves to be one of the great films of its time.