Bronenosets Potyomkin

Plot synopsis:
ACT I: "Men and Maggots"In June of 1905, the armored battle ship Potemkin is near Odessa on the Black Sea returning after Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese war.We see many sailors asleep in their gently swaying hammocks. A petty officer walks checking the dormitory. A young sailor sleeps with a shoulder and arm hanging outside his hammock. This inconveniences the movements of the officer, and he reacts by whipping the young man. A few of the other sailors wake up and observe this act.In the morning, the ship's cook has hung large pieces of beef just outside the kitchen. We see ordinary sailors talking to each other, pointing to the meat, and calling others to look.An officer on a railing higher up notices the unusual gathering, and the sailors convey to him that the meat is disgusting.The officer eventually calls the ship's doctor, who goes down to get a close look at the meat. The ship's doctor, whose demeanor is that of a servile sycophant, after looking carefully through his pince-nez, says the meat is not rotten, as it has no worms but only maggots, and those can be washed out with brine.We see preparations to serve a meal on table tops that are swinging because they hang from ropes in the ceiling. Large steel bowls are put on the tables and soup is served as the only food. Some of the sailors do not eat the soup.Later, we see in the kitchen the washing up of dishes after the meal. One of the items washed is a dish that has an inscription around near the border. The inscription reads: Give Us This Day our Daily Bread. The dishwasher holds the dish for a moment, reads it again and shows it, and smashes it. The washing crew abandons the work station.Later, we see many sailors buying cans of food and other provisions at a porthole, evidently a canteen. An officer walks by, glares at the sailors, who stand motionless and glare back. At one point, in talk occurring below decks, sailor Vakulinchuk (Aleksandr Antonov) says they are being treated worse than the Russians in Japanese POW camps.Other sailors complain about unbearable conditions, of being treated contemptuously by pompous officers and there is talk about doing something about it.ACT II: "Drama at the Harbour"Soon after next light, all hands are called on deck. Everyone lines up. Captain Golikov (Vladimir Barsky) comes up from a trap entrance and yells that no disobedience or strike will be tolerated, and he will hang everyone in the ship if he is disobeyed. Sailors look up at the masts and imagine bodies hanging from the horizontals.The Captain then orders all those who ate the borsch made with the meat to step under the cannons in a show of loyalty.Most of the sailors move under the cannons, but a group of about fifteen do not.The captain proceeds to inform those who did not eat the soup that he will kill them. The group tries to go below decks through the captain's trap entrance, but officers push them back. Upon the captain's orders, a tarpaulin is thrown over them, to make it psychologically easier for others to shoot.The ship's Orthodox priest makes an appearance on an upper deck, calling the disobedient to repent, and holding a golden cross high. Under the tarpaulin, some sailors get on their knees.The captain orders a shooting squad of marines to advance and get in position to shoot at the tarpaulin. When the captain finally gives the order to fire, there is hesitation, and the moment is seized by ordinary seaman Vakulinchuk, who intervenes to save the men by appealing to the firing squad to ignore their orders.The marines still do not shoot. Everyone looks at each other for a while. Vakulinchuk jumps on the guns and continues to speak. Vakulinchuk implores his shipmates to rise up against those who oppress them, namely the officers of the ship. The captain repeats the order, but it is not followed. Instead, Vakulinchuk persuades the rank and file to riot and turn on the officers.There are dramatic scrambles and running and taking cover and pursuits below deck to grab rifles, but since the rifles are in the hands of the rank and file, there isn't much shooting. The resisting officers are beaten and thrown overboard to drown, including the doctor.The ship's priest, whose appearance is suggestive of Rasputin, gets pushed down a ladder and pretends to be dead.Before being thrown overboard, one of the officers manages to grab a gun, pursues Vakulinchuk and shoots him from the back, hitting the head. Vakulinchuk then manages to put his hand up and touch his head wound, then falls from high into a tackle and writhes for a while before he tumbles down into the water.By then, all the commanding officers are overboard and the ship is under mutineer control. There are shouts to save Vakulinchuk, several sailors jump into the water and get to him, but he is brought on deck already dead.The mutineers feel bonded by their common the struggle, and the motto All for One and its counterpart One for All is shouted around.There is a shot of the doctor's pince-nez hanging delicately from a side rope. It was the pince-nez used as a magnifying glass through which the wriggling maggots had been seen in close up.ACT III: "A Dead Man Calls for Justice"The Potemkin sails under the mutineers' control to dock at the port of Odessa. The body of Vakulinchuk is taken to the shore to lie in state, under a tent improvised on the pier, holding a candle and with a sign on his chest reading "KILLED FOR A BOWL OF SOUP"First he is looked at by a few curious people. Some old women look and pray briefly. But the word gets around, more and more people come filing past his remains, and little by little enormously long columns of mourners pass by, coming across bridges and down stairways and making long queues on breakwaters..The locals gather in spontaneous groups to talk about the events, and clearly there is seething political ferment against the tsarist régime, although a few voice contempt for the mutineers.As a sneering member of the bourgeoisie heckles a woman protester, the reaction shot of a man turning around shows anger and has an element of threat.During another heated discussion, someone in the crowd on shore says,"Kill the Jews!"But the bulk of the citizens of Odessa, after filing past Vakulinchuk, get all whipped up and vow to destroy the oppressors and help the mutineers. There are close-up shots of the clenching fists of the hundreds of spectators who are fed up with the régime.Large numbers of small sail craft approach the battleship to support the crew, bringing food supplies and live fowl in cages and live pigs.ACT IV: "The Odessa Staircase"A great many of the townspeople have gathered on the long and wide flights of stairs overlooking the harbor, leading down towards the piers. They are in a good mood and often shouting encouragement towards the ship. Men, women, and children of all ages have come to see what is happening.Without warning, troops in white tunics appear at the top of the stairs, rifles pointing horizontally, and slowly march down the steps. For a few seconds, people scramble away, downwards and to the sides, including a man without legs and another on crutches. Then the soldiers open fire, indiscriminately, against everyone, unarmed men, women, children, and the aged.Dozens and dozens of people scramble downwards and towards the side. Aged people cower behind low walls. The soldiers keep marching down and firing aiming carefully, as they shoot down against the fleeing.A woman carries her dead son's body in her arms, upwards towards the shooters, expecting them to let her pass. She stops a few steps in front of them, says "My son is very ill" but a second later she is shot. People look onto the sight, horrified.People stampede over others who have fallen, dead or alive. We see a military boot stepping on the wrist of a child.We see someone wearing glasses with a frightened look, and then the same glasses on the floor broken by a bullet that passed through one lens.The victims include a mother who is pushing a baby in a baby carriage. As she falls to the ground, dying, she leans against the carriage, nudging it away. It rolls down the steps amidst the fleeing crowd. Desperate onlookers watch the seemingly endless journey of the pram rolling down unchecked.Cossacks on horseback then arrive from the pier side, and slaughter the helpless people from the bottom of the stairway with saber cuts.ACT V:"The Rendez-Vous with a Squadron"The crew on the Potemkin goes into battle stations, and turns its guns on the town, shooting against buildings where Tsarist soldiers might be concentrated. By then the carnage on the stairs stops, as only soldiers remain standing there.The crew of the Potemkin then puts out to sea to avoid an attack from the shore.A squadron of warships is steaming towards Odessa to retake the Potemkin.The crew on board the Potemkin expects this. They leave many on sentry duty and most others try to sleep. When multiple ships are sighted far away on the horizon, they take up steam and move to meet them on the open sea while everyone who was sleeping wakes and goes to battle stations.As the ships come nearer, the Potemkin is sending light and flag signals calling on the other side's crews to treat them as brothers.The barrels of numerous cannons are ominously leveled towards the outnumbered battleship Potemkin, but at the moment when the ships come into range, their crews allow the mutineers to pass through.The crew of the Potemkin rejoices, and rank and file from the squadron come to the deck rails, waving in friendship and brotherhood as the ships pass traveling in opposite directions.

Tags: cult, murder, violence

Review:
When the officers take their revenge and kill Vakulinchuk, all are bonded together in the struggle; a bond that reaches to the city of Odessa where the rebellion grows, leading to a bloody and historic series of events.It is hard to imagine that anybody who has seen quite a few films in the past few decades would be unaware of this film, but it is perhaps understandable that fewer have had the opportunity to actually sit down and watch.
The story is engaging and well worth hearing; the directing is crisp and professional, producing many scenes that linger in the memory; the music works to deliver the emotional edge that modern audiences would normally rely on acting and dialogue to deliver and the whole film is over all too quickly!
He isn't one of those directors who will try to get all sides to the story; he is, of course, very much early 20th century Russian, but he is nothing else but honest with how he sees his themes and style, and that is what wins over in the end.Some may want to check it outside of film-school, as the 'Stairs' sequence is like one of those landmarks of severe tragedy on film, displaying the ugly side of revolution.
Anyone who has seen "The Untouchables", and "Bronenosets Potyomkin" knows exactly what I mean.Overall I think this movie raised the bar for film making just as "Intolerance" did a few years earlier.
If you are interested in film history, to truly understand the innovations Eisenstein brings to the medium you might try viewing Potemkin along side most any film made before it (those of D.W. Griffith offer a good contrast).
However, even today, few directors have approached the skill with which Eisenstein created meaning through the combination of images at such an early point in the evolution of the medium.If you are not interested in that sort of thing, Potemkin is still one of the most beautiful and moving films ever made.
Eisenstein's rousing classic of Russian propaganda, 'Bronenosets Potyomkin / The Battleship Potemkin.'The film itself is brimming with shining examples of stunning visual imagery: the spectacles of an overthrown ship captain dangle delicately from the side rope over which he had been tossed; the body of a deceased mutineer lies peaceful upon the shore, the sign on his chest reading "KILLED FOR A BOWL OF SOUP;" close-up shots of the clenching fists of the hundreds of spectators who are finally fed up with the Tsarist regime; a wayward baby carriage careers down the Odessa Steps as desperate onlookers watch on with bated breath (this scene was memorably "borrowed" by Brian De Palma for a particularly suspenseful scene in his 'The Untouchables'); the barrels of numerous canons are ominously leveled towards the vastly-outnumbered battleship Potemkin.However, the film itself is best analysed  not as a fragmented selection of memorable scenes  but as a single film, and, indeed, every scene is hugely memorable.
Luckily, despite being banned on various occasions in various countries, 'The Battleship Potemkin' fared more admirably overseas.The film also proved a successful vehicle for Eisenstein to test his theories of "montage." Through quick-cut editing, and distant shots of the multitudes of extras, the audience is not allowed to sympathise with any individual characters, but with the revolutionary population in general.
Eisenstein does briefly break this mould, however, in a scene where Vakulinchuk flees the ship officer who is trying to kill him, and, of course, during the renowned Odessa Steps sequence, as our hearts beat in horror for the life of the unfortunate child in the tumbling baby carriage.
The accompanying soundtrack to the version I watched, largely featuring the orchestral works of Dmitri Shostakovich, served wonderfully to heighten the emotional impact of such scenes.One of the greatest films of the silent era, 'The Battleship Potemkin' is a triumph of phenomenal film-making, and is a significant slice of cinematic history.
Some of the other scenes also demonstrate, to a lesser degree, the same kind of skill.It says a lot for how effective all of the visuals are that so many viewers think so highly of "Battleship Potemkin" despite a story that is sometimes heavy-handed, and despite characters and acting that are both rather thin.
These features might simply stem from the collectivist philosophy that lies behind the story, and they are obscured most of the time by Eisenstein's unsurpassed ability to present pictures that viewers will not forget.Despite the flaws, this is a movie that most fans of silent films, and anyone interested in the history of movies, will want to see.
The scene on the Odessa steps should remain seared into anyone's mind.Okay, so "The Battleship Potemkin" wasn't actually the first movie to use montage, but they did a great job with it here.
Hundreds of them and it is an important film record of the type of craft still being used in the 1920s.As for the rest, so much of it never happened but it is etched onto peoples minds so much that people visit Odessa expecting to see a plaque or a statue commemorating the massacre on the steps.Once you know the true history I think the film loses some of its impact but as an example of film making, of its time, it will always be studied and commented on.
Sergei Eisenstein wrote Battleship Potemkin as a revolutionary propaganda film, but also used it to test his theories of "montage".
The film's capability of having great bearing on political ideas by means of emotional reaction was observed by Joseph Goebbels, who said "anyone who had no firm political conviction could become a Bolshevik after seeing the film." This remarkable influence felt and feared by tremendously powerful and influential people is something that never happens in regard to cinema today and hasn't for at least half a century now.
Even a century after its creation, the scenes on the Odessa staircase are still highly impressive.For Eisenstein, cinema was an art with many facets and his attraction montage fusions the meanings of images, words and music into a powerful and baffling piece of art.
This movie is filled with details and close to perfection from an artistic point of view.Of course, there is a lot of symbolism in the movie and a lot of propaganda but as censorship wasn't yet as extreme as it would be during the next three decades under the tyranny of a powerful madman called Stalin this movie still portrays the opinion of Eisenstein who comes from Latvia that had been annexed by the Russian tsar.
This film has always been rated as one of the best pictures ever made, and, "Battleship Potemkin" is a movie classic that brings on an intellectual enlightenment to the forefront of the wonderful world of cinema!!
The film itself deals with the 1905 uprising of the battleship of the title, how the crew of the ship rebelled against the czarist officers when they were asked to eat rotten meat, how after the mutiny the ship landed in the port of Odessa in the Black Sea (receiving the support of the population), and how the rebellion was suppressed by troops loyal to the regime.
There's very little I can say about Sergei Eisenstein's masterpiece "Battleship Potemkin" that hasn't been said and said better by my fellow reviewers on this site.At 85 years old, this story of a ship's mutiny that leads to a Russian massacre still holds up - and you can't say that about a lot of 85-year-olds.
In fact, if one were to have The Odessa Steps segment in a film today, it would be met with with the same jaw-dropping amazement as it must have been in 1925.Besides his brilliant montages, Eisenstein gives us some awesome visual moments - the parades of people walking down to the ship, the fuel of the ship curling out against the ocean sky; the sails on the water, and the dramatic way the film ends as the ship moves toward us - all breathtaking.But I am in complete amazement over The Odessa Steps segment, the entire thing, of which the massacre on the steps is a part.
After reading a biography on the last Russian Tzar (Nicholas II), and his failure to secure the army's support, I decided to give this film a try.I watched it with a completely open mind, not knowing anything about it (except its reputation).These are the things that impressed me the most.1) The shots of battleships, and the soldiers used as extras.
What makes 'The Odessa Steps' so great tho is nothing that it is shot; but the way in which the sequence is edited to together with fast cutting shots added together, which would come about being called 'Montage Editing'; the quick shots of a woman crying, of soldiers marching down the steps firing volleys into the fleeing cowards, the shot back to the woman with blood over her face then one's of soldier's feet marching gives the impression of force and power.The only problem is with the film is that it gives the impression that it lasts too long; the full version which was re-cut when it was allowed to enter Western cinema's (or even straight to video) was cut down to 63 minutes, from the 189 minute oringal (in which sadly the negative of the epic has been lost somewhere in russia and would probably never be found).
Something we take for granted with movies of our time like Hoffa.Battleship Potemkin, though a must see for any buff or one who appreciates historical events in their context, played out to me like too much of a cliché propaganda film.
If you are not "allergic" to black and white or silent movies, this is a definite must-see!Eisenstein is undoubtably one of the most important film-makers of all time, and has been the inspiration of the directors we know and love to day..
It may not come to one's mind while watching the movie, but in a time when editing consisted in cutting and glueing film rolls together, it takes a tremendous amount of work to create a movie where some shots last less than a second.
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.
But every time I see "Battleship Potemkin" I am tempted, however briefly, to seek out a CPUSA membership form.Director Sergei Eisenstein proclaimed his admiration of D.W. Griffith and never hesitated to credit Griffith with having taught him the art and skill of editing."Battleship Potemkin" uses editing in part to propagandize, but more so to advance the story.In addition to skilled and dramatic editing, Eisenstein used a brilliant moving camera, especially at The Steps (if you haven't seen this before, I don't want to give anything away, but you'll see quickly what I mean) to, again, tell the story, but to tell it in so dramatic a fashion, any thoughtful person, and even just the person seeking a movie to relax and enjoy, will be caught up and moved and excited and fascinated.Eisenstein was his own editor, and this was only his second feature film, and that he was a rare genius is immediately obvious.Bear in mind this was financed by the Soviet government, for its own purposes, so Eisenstein's huge crowds and the availability of the Soviet navy are understood, but they help make this one of the greatest movies of all time.As propaganda, "Battleship Potemkin" is occasionally obvious, even blatant, but as a movie, it is simply -- to repeat -- one of the greatest of all time.I cannot stress too much how strongly I recommend "Battleship Potemkin."Probably there are several versions around for home consumption, but do try to see the one with the enhanced original score.
An unique achievement in cinema that continues to amaze even after all these years.Eisenstein didn't reinvent the reel with his film, but combined existing film-making techniques that had been used individually by other silent film directors – such as montage, tracking shots and extreme close-ups – for maximum effect in telling the story of a mutiny at sea and subsequent mayhem on land.In 1905, the armored cruiser Potemkin is returning to Odessa on the Black Sea from defeat in the Russian-Japanese war.
The now legendary Odessa Steps sequence, a monumental achievement in film-making, is done in a tremendously realistic fashion that, as critic Roger Ebert points out, "is often referred to as if it really happened".To achieve this atmosphere of realism, Eisenstein often used untrained people (and even members of his crew) to play basically themselves in his movies, and "Potemkin" is not an exception, as to most of the actors on screen this meant their only participation in movies.
Im not going to go into the plot or technical brilliance of the film, that has been done by lots of other posts, just to say this film works in my opinion not least because it is a great action film,there is largely no need for dialogue since the actions and acting is largely self explanatory, the use of subtitles is minimal and only used when required to move the narrative along, the soundtrack is also vital to the film and really does help the emotional roller-coaster of revolutionary fervour that swells among the crew of the potemkin and people of odessa, hard to find fault with the story or execution although the guy who says " kill the jews" must be the most stupid man in all of mother Russia !
Eisenstein's film about an episode in the Russian Revolution is one of the most famous films of all time and still one which surprisingly few people have actually seen.Undoubtedly, we have here a piece of propaganda cinema: the film maker is clearly on the side of the common soldiers rebelling against their aristocratic and bourgeois officers and exploiters.
This may put some people off, but notice that this is more open and honest in its approach than many western films of the cold war era in which the outcome (who's the good guy?) is as predictable as it is here but in which the viewer is fooled into thinking that it is not.The reason Battleship Potemkin is famous is not because of the acting performances: most actors weren't even professionals and the acting is quite often outrageously over the top, although it is fair to say that this is a problem of many silent movies.
A lot of people note that director Sergei Eisenstein was ahead of his time with his 'film montage' technique, used so effectively in the massacre scene on the steps of Odessa, but it should also be noted that he captures brilliant images throughout this movie.
Sergei Eisenstein made an epic film with vast crowd sequences, montage editing techniques and is a technical accomplishment for the early days of cinema..
Battleship Potemkin is a 1925 silent drama film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and is often considered one of the greatest films of all time for its revolutionary camera work and incredible montage techniques, impressive action sequences and compelling plot of comradeship.
The story is told through five acts which goes from an uprising on the Potemkin against the barbaric ship captain and senior officers all the way to Odessa to begin an uprising and leading to one of the most important and at the time shocking scenes in cinematic history- the infamous Odessa steps massacre, where we really see how Eisenstein didn't shy away from graphic and near-disturbing imagery The plot has a distinct and recognisable narrative which is now the backbone and basis of film today, again showing how significant and of great importance it is, with a distinct first, second and third act, all the while telling a phenomenal tale and delivering a hugely satisfying, tense and fantastic ending.
This scene in particular establishes the logic that Eisenstein uses can be equal parts broadly observant, as seen in his montages, or decidedly focused.In a way, I feel Battleship Potemkin was a film made for the masses to, for once, look introspectively at their situations in Russian and observe the treacherous, unfair living conditions and the willfully oppressive nature of the rich and able.
What Eisenstein also does is bring in all the crafts that make up a film and creates an art piece, one that's cameras are perfectly working, editing is finely tuned, dialogue (even for a silent movie) is great and then utilises production design especially in the famous "Odessa Steps" scene where the outfits and the general look of the scene looks amazing.This is so often placed on the lists that people compile with the greatest movies and for good reason, the reasons become even more so when you consider this was made in 1925 and it is silent, but you never truly think about that and this doesn't seem to have aged at all, in fact other than the cast the only expired thing is the Soviet Union.
"Battleship Potemkin" is one of the most famous movies in history and is also considered as one of the masterpieces of world cinema.
"There is an uprising!"Battleship Potemkin is one of the true masterpieces from the silent film era thanks to the innovative editing techniques used by director Sergei Eisenstein.
No matter if you agree or not with the message of the film, there is no denying that this movie is worth watching thanks to Eisenstein's technical achievements and some iconic scenes that continue to influence the way we view cinema today.
They have reached a point of no return and there is no stopping the revolution now.The climactic and most memorable action scene takes place during the middle of the film in the Odessa Steps where Eisenstein brilliantly uses rhythmic editing to build the suspense.