I cannot explain how influential Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin has been during the course of the last eighty years. Eisenstein's use of montage is extraordinary, flashing from one idea to another, and back again so quickly that you don't even realize that it is happening! Based on an actual mutiny that took place in Russia in 1905, Battleship Potemkin explores revolution through splicing together powerful images in a way that can, at times, literally take your breath away. The sheer brutality of the soldiers opening fire on the civilians at the shore of Odessa is truly horrifying! The intensity of the scene is truly unforgettable. The audience witnesses the chaos that comes from social uprising; children and mothers gunned down, baby carriages falling helplessly down flights of stairs. These are the visions which will stay with anyone who sees this movie. This particular scene is quite moving and disturbingly graphic. I am not sure, though, whether it is the power of the images, or the brilliance of the order in which they were placed that makes this movie such a force. Through his use of symbolism, powerful photography, and ingenious montage, Eisenstein created one of the most important and influential films of all time!
Review of Battleship Potemkin
