Resonant Classic of Silent Era!!

Rating: 9/10 (6 October 2008)

This movie, I must say, exceeded all my expectations that I had developed after reading and listening so much about it from critics and reviewers. I am once again very glad to have tried this silent era classic (other being 'Man with a Movie Camera' another gem). The movie is about the mutiny in the ship Potemkin that in turn grew and reached the lands and probably played some part in Russian Revolution. The movie may not be politically correct and some scenes may have got the facts wrong but nonetheless to watch it as a neutral viewer and cinema lover satisfies me to great extent.
The movie starts with the sailors protesting at having to eat rotten meat and then depicts the sailor's mutiny against the officers and in the process sailors leader gets killed. The leader body is then brought to the land (Odessa) where as the news spread of his bravery and the mutiny on the ship, huge crowd draws to pay their respect and mourn on his death. As the demonstration increase on the Odessa Steps, Tsar Soldiers massacre the crowd (apparently this is fiction) and then finally we see other forces (squadron) joining battleship sailors in their revolution. One of the finest and famous scenes in the movie is in the Odessa Steps when a child is killed by the soldiers and crowd runs all over him and then his mother holds her sons dead body and goes to the soldiers where even she is fired at and dies eventually. Other heart wrenching scene is when a child on a crib falls down the stairs after the baby's mother is killed. There are other scenes too which are really good and well handled both visual and emotion wise. Now I know why Eisenstein is regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time because of his revolutionary vision and work in Cinema.
I would rate this movie 9/10, the only reason being the movie kind of slips in the last 5 minutes or so where it succeeds in creating good tension between Battleship and Squadron but then it ends little too soon, I was little disappointed then and probably one or two more scene/detail on that would have been great. Other than that I would definitely call it "One of the Great Masterpiece of Cinema".
I would strongly recommend this to anyone who is interested in watching silent era movies.