Battleship Potemkin (1925)
"Bronenosets Potyomkin" (original title)

A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resulting street demonstration which brought on a police massacre.

Director:

Sergei M. Eisenstein

Writer:

Nina Agadzhanova (script)

Stars:

Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barsky, Grigori Aleksandrov

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Cast

Credited cast:
Aleksandr Antonov	...	Grigory Vakulinchuk - Bolshevik Sailor
Vladimir Barsky	...	Commander Golikov
Grigori Aleksandrov	...	Chief Officer Giliarovsky
Ivan Bobrov	...	Young Sailor Flogged While Sleeping (as I. Bobrov)
Mikhail Gomorov	...	Militant Sailor
Aleksandr Levshin	...	Petty Officer
N. Poltavtseva	...	Woman With Pince-nez
Konstantin Feldman	...	Student Agitator
Prokopenko	...	Mother Carrying Wounded Boy
A. Glauberman	...	Wounded Boy
Beatrice Vitoldi	...	Woman With Baby Carriage
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Brodsky	...	Student
Julia Eisenstein	...	Woman with Food for Sailors
Sergei M. Eisenstein	...	Odessa Citizen
Andrey Fayt	...	Recruit (as A. Fait)

Storyline

Based on the historical events the movie tells the story of a riot at the battleship Potemkin. What started as a protest strike when the crew was given rotten meat for dinner ended in a riot. The sailors raised the red flag and tried to ignite the revolution in their home port Odessa.

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Plot Keywords:

revolution | mutiny | battleship | massacre | naval | 

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Genres:

Drama | History

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Release Date:

24 December 1925 (Soviet Union)

Also Known As:

Battleship Potemkin

Filming Locations:

Alupka, Crimea, Ukraine

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$2,283 (USA) (21 January 2011)

Gross:

$50,970 (USA) (13 January 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Goskino

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min 68 min (DVD edition) 72 min (Blu-ray)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.25 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Konstantin Feldman, who played the part of the "student agitator" in the film was actually a Menshevik activist in Odessa at the time of the mutiny and was present on the ship during the latter part of the mutiny. He died in the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. (N. Bascom, "Red Mutiny" p.294 - although Bascom says Feldmann played a sailor.)

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Goofs

In the Imperial squadron near the end of the film, we see close-ups of triple gun turrets of Gangut-class dreadnought. It is possibly made this way to show the power of Imperial fleet, but this is an anachronism, for battleships of 1905 were much smaller pre-dreadnoughts, with twin turrets only, just like "Potemkin". "Ganguts" entered service in 1914.

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Connections

Referenced in Beauty and the Beast (1991)

User Reviews

A true Masterpiece from Eisentstein

Battleship Potemkin is a celluloid masterpiece. The direction of

Eisenstein is truly a sight. The film chronicles a ship of disgruntled

sailors who are tired of being mistreated by their superior officers.

Eventually, the sailors finally have enough of the abuse and send the

officers packing. During this time period, there was a shortage of film

stock in the Soviet Union. The goverment wanted to get their message

out to the people so they started a National Film Company and one of

the members was Sergei Eisenstein. The films were shot on miniscule

budgets and the shortage of film stock forced Eisentein to be careful

and selective with the footage that he shot. In the end, Eisenstein had

to reuse footage in order to make a feature length picture.

The most famous of the action set pieces in this film is the much

talked about massacre on the steps. This scene was spoofed in Bananas

and most recently in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables. If you want to

learn film-making, I strongly advise you to watch Battleship Potemkin.

It's one of the essentials.

A+