About this movie
- Genres:
- Classics, Action & Adventure, Drama
- Language:
- English
- Running time:
- 1:12:51
- Partner rating:
- Released:
- 1925
Cast & Crew
Cast
- Aleksandr Antonov
-
Vladimir Barsky
The Capt.
- Grigori Aleksandrov
- Ivan Bobrov
-
Mikhail Gomorov
Sailor Motyushenko
- Aleksandr Levshin
- N. Poltavtseva
-
Konstantin Feldman
Student Feldman
-
Prokopenko
Mother of Wounded Aba
-
A. Glauberman
Abo
- Beatrice Vitoldi
-
Alexander Antonov
Vokulinchuk
-
Grigory Alexandrov
Senior Officer Gilyarousky
-
Marusov
Officer
-
I. Bobrov
Recruit
-
Repnikova
zhenshchina na lestnitse
- Alexandr Levshin
- Andrei Fayt
-
M. Brodsky
Intellectual
-
Citizens of Odessa
Themselves
Directors
- Sergei M. Eisenstein
- Sergei Eisenstein
Producers
- Grigori Aleksandrov
Writers
- Nina Agadzhanova
- Nikolai Aseyev
- Sergei M. Eisenstein
- Sergei Tretyakov
Battleship Potemkin
After the success of Strike (1924), Sergei Eisenstein was commissioned by the Soviet government to make a film commemorating the uprising of 1905. Eisenstein's scenario, boiled down from what was to have been a multipart epic of the occasion, focussed on the crew of the battleship Potemkin. Fed up with the extreme cruelties of their officers and their maggot-ridden meat rations, the sailors stage a violent mutiny. This, in turn, sparks an abortive citizens' revolt against the Czarist regime. The film's centerpiece is staged on the Odessa Steps, where in 1905 the Czar's Cossacks methodically shot down rioters and innocent bystanders alike. To Eisenstein, this single bloody incident was the crucible of the successful 1917 Bolshevik revolution, and the result was the "Odessa Steps sequence," which is often considered the most famous sequence ever filmed; it is certainly one of the most imitated, perhaps most overtly by Brian De Palma in The Untouchables (1987). This triumph of Eisenstein's "rhythmic editing" technique occurs in the middle of film, not as the climax, as more current film structure might do it. All the actors in the film were amateurs, selected by Eisenstein because of their "rightness" as types for their roles. Pictorial quality varies from print to print, but even in a duped-down version, Battleship Potemkin is must-see cinema.
Reviews by Rotten Tomatoes
100%
percent positive reviews
-
Mordaunt Hall, New York TimesThe director displays a vivid imagination and an artistic appreciation of motion picture values.
– Full review
-
J. Hoberman, Village Voice
For all Potemkin's rabble-rousing propaganda, Eisenstein's aestheticism is everywhere apparent.
– Full review
-
Philip French, Guardian [UK]
Potemkin is a vital viewing experience that transcends its landmark/milestone status.
– Full review
-
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
Eisenstein's film still has a hypnotic urgency.
– Full review
-
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
It is a knockout.
– Full review
-
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
A work of straightforward emotion and pulse-quickening tension.
– Full review
-
Variety Staff, Variety
The direction of Sergei Eisenstein is original and powerful.
– Full review
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