While lacking the grandeur and narrative technique of Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, this French film from Pathe makes a decent job of recreating key moments from the Russian revolution of 1905 in Odessa.
The film opens with sailors aboard a ship complaining to officers about the condition of their food, a situation which the ship's captain handles by shooting the leader of the unhappy diners. This proves to be a big mistake because before you can say 'dummy double' the Captain finds himself turning all floppy and being thrown overboard. There then follows scenes of the sailors taking control of the ship, the grieving family and friends of the dead sailor and the beating of peasants by cossack soldiers.
While the lack of any narrative structure means the film is simply a disjointed collection of scenes, it is worth acknowledging the effort that has gone into making this a believable recreation by the film's makers.
The film opens with sailors aboard a ship complaining to officers about the condition of their food, a situation which the ship's captain handles by shooting the leader of the unhappy diners. This proves to be a big mistake because before you can say 'dummy double' the Captain finds himself turning all floppy and being thrown overboard. There then follows scenes of the sailors taking control of the ship, the grieving family and friends of the dead sailor and the beating of peasants by cossack soldiers.
While the lack of any narrative structure means the film is simply a disjointed collection of scenes, it is worth acknowledging the effort that has gone into making this a believable recreation by the film's makers.