Odessa Steps clip: Battleship Potemkin (1925)

[lanfisher]

I can't believe people are actually complaining about this movie on here. Yes, it's communist propaganda, yes it's lame by our standards of cinema, but that's not the point at all. The point is that we wouldn't have the kind of cinema we do now without films like this. The point is the relevance of the film's innovations in relation to what existed at the time, society's reaction at the time, and how it affected the work of future filmmakers. They study this film in film classes for a very good

[vudu8ball]

Just a bunch of well armed nineteen year olds "doing thier job!"

This is what it takes to change the world. getting pepper sprayed is just a warm up.

[misr91]

Damn those murdering cossacks...you would never see communist troops doing that sort of thing...

[OakIslandBandit]

@misr91 LOL

[porkwilliam]

Toys are made by loyal factory for amusement of the children of the glorious soviet motherland.

Toys are of baby, and have realistic crying function.

Soon, it becomes difficult to distinguish baby and toy.

Both are burned for warmth.

Such is life in mother Russia.

[pol26481]

per me la corazzata potemkin è una cagata pazzesca

[TheLIEGiT]

That dude with no legs is hauling ass.

[mrsholloway77]

Cannot believe my professor is making us study this ¬_¬

[braceface90210]

@mrsholloway77 So is ours. And I am still in high school!!!!

[serpico89]

@mrsholloway77 it's people like you who further degrade america's education system.

[mrsholloway77]

@serpico89 Firstly: I'm from England, actually. Secondly: I understand that this film is very important both as a piece of wartime propaganda and also in the history and development of cinema as art. However, it really does show its age and it is not the sort of film that I would choose to have to watch over and over again or write an essay on. Is thay okay with you, Mr Grumpy Gills?

[serpico89]

@mrsholloway77 how many essays did you have to write? i feel like you're someone who moans and complains about everything dealing with school.

[mrsholloway77]

@serpico89 Four this semester. We've moved on to Spanish & Latin American cinema now & that's much more bearable but I'm really sick of this film.

[MegatronTarantulas]

this entire clip is fucking hilarious

[crudesicle]

The legless guy in the beginning...

[kenshinjanevski]

LOL the mother and child bit is kinda funny

[Bangell99]

"My boy is very ill"?

Try "My boy is dead."

[serpico89]

incredibly powerful. i can see why this is a famous part in the movie. the scene + music is utterly horrifying.

[Mad1Cow]

@serpico89 this was before sound was added into films so the music was added afterwards by devotees. My advice would be to mute it and see if it still had the same impact...

[serpico89]

@Mad1Cow still even watching it without music its shocking. i understand some of the limitations they had in filming back then, such as people dieing less realistically. but it still gives you a feeling of an endless swarm of people trying to descend the steps. and the baby is the perfect touch to the drama.

[Mad1Cow]

@serpico89 Funny that, I never really remember the baby unless it's pop culture, the bit that always get's me as a powerful shot of the sequence is when the troops descend the stairs with the statue overlooking them. That and the actual simplicity of the scenario yet the impact it has, thanks to the cinematography.

[benjaminRirwin]

@Mad1Cow No offence at all, but how can you not remember the baby in the carriage? It one of the most important factors of this scene. This scene is famous for it! I agree that the shot you mentioned was very powerful, one of my favourite shots actually. But this is all just my opinion!

[Mad1Cow]

@benjaminRirwin Years of stuck up Film teachers trying to push the whole "REMEMBER THE BABY IN THE CARRIAGE, IT'S SYMBOLIC!" made me look at everything else in this scene with more interest except the baby bit. The baby bit is pretty much what I think of this scene when explaining it to others but it's not the most powerful bit in my opinion, the terror of the armies descending the staircase, almost machine like, is what makes me consider it a powerful scene.

[benjaminRirwin]

@Mad1Cow Well of course they told you that, it is symbolic. The director doesn't care wether it spoke to you or not. My film teachers have all talked about it (and are not stuck up). A reason why the teachers my have told you to remember this carriage was maybe they would have a question about it on a test/exam? If you're in a University/College for film with stuck up teachers, find a better school! My profs are great. Enjoy the WHOLE scene. You can't make a good critique ignoring some aspects.

[Mad1Cow]

@benjaminRirwin I do enjoy the whole scene, it's just when describing it people won't sit down and explain the whole scene, they'll only take away a small bit of it to describe to everyone else (which in this case is arguably the most powerful moment with the carriage). However I'm just different and weird and when thinking of this scene I much prefer the way the army is represented compared to the baby bit. Call it personal preferance...

[Wolfen443]

@Mad1Cow, it needs no music at all indeed.

[EEEL123]

@Mad1Cow Sometimes music was played at the cinemas when films were shown, although sound wasn't part of the film itself.

[Mad1Cow]

@EEEL123 Still, it wouldn't be this exact music, the piano players would always have a set list of scores to play depending on the feel of the film, so saying that the music in this particular showing was part of what made it a classic is a false statement.

[EEEL123]

@Mad1Cow There was an official score which Eisenstein endorsed, but yes, it is likely that sometimes the pianist would play something different.

[CharlesDickens99]

Is the music by Shostakovitch?

[RRWonthebass]

@CharlesDickens99 This is the second half of the second movement of Shostakovich's eleventh symphony.

[RRWonthebass]

@CharlesDickens99 And then it moves to the third movement of the fifth symphony.

[javakogan]

Powerful movie... My family lived there at the time...

[keyboardhero521]

This scene is incredible but I feel like saying to the woman with the baby carriage "RUN... FUCKING RUN!".

[DBMalone]

@keyboardhero521 The inspiration for the baby carriiage scene on the stairs in Brian DePalma's film "The Untouchables." He was paying homage to Eisenstein.

[keyboardhero521]

@DBMalone Yes, I saw The Untouchables long before I first saw this film. DePalma just loves paying homage to the classics. I was surprised by the grim tone this scene had compared to the miraculous triumph of the Untouchables homage.

[underbightdog23]

Once in 8th grade I didn't know the name of one battle during social studies, so I just put Battle-Ship Potemkin, and the teacher counted my answer right.

[taags]

was the woman with the kid played by a dude?

[jackbadger56]

Moving, but were they short of female extras/actors? Drag was alive and well in 20' Russia.

[phxsns1]

One of the eeriest scenes ever in a movie.

[Mindtage]

An early stage of Mindtage seen here.

[crtunlvr]

i would of dropped the basket, and carried my son, i like the scene, but i find that so disturbing, but i know it's a important factor eisenstein used to add and make a point....it just bothers me.

[klein77]

I wonder if the baby is still alive, it's possible, albeit, they'd be in their 80s

[komradhall]

2 tsarists disliked this video

[texseb12v2]

@komradhall tsarist?

[cfc19900]

@komradhall Fuckk off you communist fucking cunt.

[danielmonroe10]

The Battleship Potemkin is the most haunting movie I've ever seen.

[secondsR]

hey can someone give me an analysis on this? something short based on editing :D

pleaseee

[ItsCabby]

@secondsR Don't take film if you don't like writing!

[MrRollingbob]

It ain't right what they did to those people. Hard enough going down so steep a staircase anyway, without having a) lots of other folks running behind you in a panic and b) guys shooting at everybody. Plus that baby carriage! And all those people wearing glasses. Horses, too. It just ain't right.

[Engage777]

@MrRollingbob Horses wearing glasses?

[haupper]

They should have all taken the escalator instead.

[Engage777]

@haupper Ya, but if it had broken down, they'd have been stuck on it for hours.

[kunnimunan]

@haupper exactly what a capitalist would say.

[Nukethelotofthem1]

@haupper Not funny

[efames]

great great scene....but bizarre when you actually see the potemkin steps b/c they are very small relative to how they look here.

[J0hnone]

The music in this scene puts hairs on the back of my neck. Amazing scene. Amazing film. :D

[TheSbr17]

mi associo al ragionier fantozzi.....!!!!

[strummerrr]

Watched this film couple days ago, and yesterday I watched Brazil again. Didn't remember Brazil also referenced this (I knew about Untouchables and Naked Gun 3).

Damn, now I have to check out if my dvd has this same music. That's one thing I don't like about silent films, you don't know which music is "right".

[dabest21]

@XxKubrickFanxX

if i c sumthin funny i'll laugh, if u dnt like it, well im laughfin at u 2 hahahaahahaha

[SyberSid]

@dabest21 They see me trolling, they hating.

[superdavid002]

I mention Potemkin in The Celebrity Song.

[dabest21]

@ InvaderSlusk1994

u cant tell me u dnt c da humor in this, if u dnt then go kick rocks, u'll get over it

[XxKubrickFanxX]

there is zero intended humor in this you idiot

[InvaderSlusk1994]

thats why this is a smart movie, although this massacre didnt happen, in modern times this is a archetype of what happens in some countries when people rebel. i have heard that tsarist russia did things like this at times, but i must digress, the film is a masterpiece of russian cinema

[royalcourtier]

A masterpiece of propaganda. It has alone distorted the view of many Russians and non-Russians towards pre-revolutionary Russia

[Nikitns]

@royalcourtier

There were many massacres in pre 1917 Russia. don't kid yourself.

[SaraConr]

Amazing scene - nice use of Shostakovich's 5th there at the end.

[gbadamo65]

That staircase looks so beautiful. even after so many years it still retains the beauty.

[Giovannisenzaterra]

@bag3lmonst3r true story sto cazzo

[GiantEnemyCrab63]

@bag3lmonst3r oh the irony, the tragedy, and the beauty of that.

[leafyutube]

Clearly the climatic scene at the train station in "The Untouchables" (1987) is based on this scene.

[yepheth]

@leafyutube indeed the shootdown with Costner-Garcia, great scene. I was typing the same but you came first.

[xradio86]

the cinematography for a 1925 film is brillant

[dabest21]

at 1:50 dat guy scrapped the gum on the bottom of his shoe on that kid, LMFAO, tooo funny

[berlinSS]

"The Soviet Union came into existence in 1921"

Really-really?

[berlinSS]

When was Soviet Union formed?

[merobots]

lol i did what Aswakhtor said and put benny hill theme tune in the backround and it made it absolutly hilarious!

lool the way the people ran down the stairs and the way they fell over when shot was so funny with the music! xD

[Aswakhtor]

dubbing the benny hill theme song over this video makes this scene hilarious

[kmillard]

"The Untouchables" totally ripped off the scene with the baby carriage rolling down the steps!!

[versus79]

Marxist propaganda

[kmillard]

Very tue dat, but I try to forget that and remember that its also terrific filmmaking. "Birth of a Nation" is flagrantly racist but the lessons learned about shooting epic scenes from Griffith should not be overlooked.

[freespeech4u2]

REALLY?! what would we do without your razor sharp insight?

[veataanis]

i wonder if there is a available version of potemkin, or only this scene with the music of edmund meisel?

[yaik7a]

What Happened to the baby anyway ?

Also it too bad Eisenstein orginal vison of being revised every 20 years did not happen

[uiopytrre]

what happened in this scene? was there a protest

[streetswell]

Yes, and the Tsar's troops repress it

[Nightgaun7]

There was no massacre on the Odessa steps in reality, this was entirely fabricated for the movie. Gotta love propaganda...

[shadowphanx]

and Then the Soviet Union was formed.....and defeated the tsaris troops

[Joonavainio]

And then killed 60 million more of their own.

Anyway, that doesn't make Eisenstein a bad director. A classic movie.

[berlinSS]

When did Soivet Union's army fight against Tsarist troops?

[lichi82]

poweful!