In the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
During the early part of his reign, Ivan the Terrible faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people.
Director:
Sergei M. Eisenstein
Stars:
Nikolay Cherkasov,
Lyudmila Tselikovskaya,
Serafima Birman
In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
Director:
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Stars:
Maria Falconetti,
Eugene Silvain,
André Berley
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Director:
Fritz Lang
Stars:
Brigitte Helm,
Alfred Abel,
Gustav Fröhlich
In documentary style, events in Petrograd are re-enacted from the end of the monarchy in February of 1917 to the end of the provisional government and the decrees of peace and of land in ... See full summary »
Directors:
Grigoriy Aleksandrov,
Sergei M. Eisenstein
Stars:
Boris Livanov,
Nikolay Popov,
Vasili Nikandrov
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.Written by
Konstantin Dlutskii <ked@falcon.cc.ukans.edu>
The steps sequence in this film inspired the steps shootout scene in The Untouchables (1987). See more »
Goofs
After the woman with her son in her arms approaches the army in Odessa Steps sequence, she gets shot and falls backward with her son draped perpendicular across her. When the army marches down the steps after shooting the woman, the woman has turned 180 degrees around and her son is now lined up with her body. See more »
Quotes
Militant Sailor:
The people of Odessa are waiting for the liberators! Land the troops and the army will join you.
See more »
Alternate Versions
Pankreutzer Potemkine/Bronenosets Potiomkine is a sound version produced by Wilhelm Karl Gerst for Prometheus (Berlin), running 49 minutes at 24 fps, with German cards by Phil Jutzi and a score by composer and music conductor Edmund Meisel. This version was distributed in Berlin the 29 April 1926, and Sergei M. Eisenstein' attempted to see it but couldn't, because his visa expired some days before and he had to return to Moscou. Eventually he saw this version in London, in November 1929. See more »
This classic is filled with vivid images that stay in your mind after you have watched it, and there is a lot to appreciate in the way that the key scenes were set up and photographed. The visuals are so impressive that the movie's imperfections are usually not so noticeable, and they don't keep it from being a memorable film.
The movie certainly deserves the praise that it gets both for the influence that it has had, and for some ideas that for the time were most creative. The famed 'Odessa Steps' sequence alone demonstrates both fine technical skill and a keen awareness of how to drive home an image to an audience. It deserves to be one of cinema's best remembered sequences. 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. There's nothing else in its era that's quite like it.
32 of 42 people found this review helpful.
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This classic is filled with vivid images that stay in your mind after you have watched it, and there is a lot to appreciate in the way that the key scenes were set up and photographed. The visuals are so impressive that the movie's imperfections are usually not so noticeable, and they don't keep it from being a memorable film.
The movie certainly deserves the praise that it gets both for the influence that it has had, and for some ideas that for the time were most creative. The famed 'Odessa Steps' sequence alone demonstrates both fine technical skill and a keen awareness of how to drive home an image to an audience. It deserves to be one of cinema's best remembered sequences. 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. There's nothing else in its era that's quite like it.