Home Page | Alphabetic Index | Ratings Index | Web Resources

Bronenosets Potemkin (1925)
(aka Battleship Potemkin)

A review by Damian Cannon.
Copyright © Movie Reviews UK 1997
Anchored offshore from Odessa, in 1905, the Potemkin contains sailors fresh from the war with Japan. The scene is set with the first cue card - "Part 1: Men and Maggots". On board the ship life is cramped, the food is rotten and the officers inhuman; all conditions ripe for mutiny. Whispering in their hammocks, arranged like a spider's web, the men discuss how the Workers are revolting against their Tsarist bosses; shouldn't the sailors join them? The next day the sailors gather for breakfast, which is slabs of meat hanging from the gangways. When the ship's doctor declares that the maggot-infested meat is fine to eat a small group rebels. The officers, who are well fed, order their execution by firing squad, in front of the rest of the crew.

On the quarterdeck the group is lined up but before the order can be given to fire, a sailor, Vakulinchuk (Alexander Antonov), steps forward. He asks the firing squad who's side are they on - their comrades or the officers? As they lower their weapons one of the officers goes berserk and tries to grab a rifle, provoking a ship-wide mutiny. As chaos envelopes the Potemkin many men, officers and sailors, are killed -- in particular, Vakulinchuk is shot by the Captain. After completing their revolution the ship sails into Odessa, where the sailors erect a shrine to their fallen comrade. Soon crowds are drawn to the quayside memorial, "He died for a spoonful of soup", with his martyrdom spurring them into their own insurrection. Later, when crowds are cheering the sailors aboard the Potemkin, lines of Czar soldiers appear at the top of the steps which lead to the quay.

Advancing slowly down the steps the soldiers shoot indiscriminantly, cutting down everyone from young boys to old women. The civilians panic and try to hide; a young woman is shot, pushing her baby carriage down the steps. As it rolls downwards people try to rescue the baby, but are murdered by the advancing troops. Seeing this carnage, from the Potemkin, the sailors turn their huge guns on the town of Odessa and the ravaging Cossacks. As the smoke clears the sailors realise that the Czar Navy will be on its way to Odessa, so they turn the Potemkin to meet the opposing ships head-on. Steaming into battle the guns are primed and the comrades are prepared to die for the cause of revolution. Instead of shells they are met with smiles; their fellow sailors feel just the same way.

Reviewing, in a critical fashion, a film like Battleship Potemkin is almost impossible due to the acclaim which has been heaped upon it in the past 70 years. However, this fame is not misplaced -- several sequences in the story have an undeniable power and historical resonance (more so now that the USSR has fallen). The crowd scenes are superbly handled, especially the Odessa Steps segment, with a channeling of the mob's power into the rapid montage technique. Somehow, though, watching this film is anti-climatic. The "Steps" sequence has been copied so many times that we feel that we know how it runs, yet the reality doesn't live up to our imagination. The result of this is a film of immense interest which fails to engage our emotions, perhaps because we are conditioned to colour "talkies". To judge this movie with our modern sensibilities simply doesn't work; instead watch for interest's sake.

Home Page | Alphabetic Index | Ratings Index | Web Resources