Battleship Potemkin

Released 1925
Directed by Grigori Aleksandrov, Sergei M. Eisenstein

"The Battleship Potemkin" has been so famous for so long that it is almost impossible to come to it with a fresh eye. It is one of the fundamental landmarks of cinema. Its famous massacre on the Odessa Steps has been quoted so many times in other films (notably in "The Untouchables") that it's likely many viewers will have seen the parody before they see the original. The film once had such power that it was banned in many nations, including its native Soviet Union. Governments actually believed it could incite audiences to action. If today it seems more like a technically brilliant but simplistic "cartoon" (Pauline Kael's description in a favorable review), that may be because it has worn out its element of surprise--that, like the 23rd Psalm or Beethoven's Fifth, it has become so familiar we cannot perceive it for what it is.

The fact is, "Potemkin" doesn't really stand alone, but depends for its power upon the social situation in which it is shown. In prosperous peacetime, it is a curiosity. If it had been shown in China at the time of Tiananmen Square, I imagine it would have been inflammatory. It was voted the greatest film of all time at the Brussels, Belgium, World's Fair in 1958 (ironically, the very year "Citizen Kane" had its great re-release and went to the top of the list for the next 40 years). The Cold War was at its height in 1958, and many European leftists still subscribed to the Marxist prescription for society; "Potemkin" for them had a power, too.

Summary by Roger Ebert

I had no idea this was a propaganda film. I thought it would be from a Marxist viewpoint, but it's really an unabashed piece of communist propaganda that celebrates the 1905 Potemkin uprising. It's amusing the communists commissioned this communist film, but Stalin banned it. It was so powerful, he was afraid it would incite an uprising against him instead of celebrate the uprising of the proletariat. As Roger Ebert observed, its power depends on the viewer's context. The Odessa Steps scene is very powerful, and I can only imagine its impact 75 years ago. I could definitely see it having the power to incite an oppressed people to action, and I think the fragile governments of the early 20th century did the right thing by banning it. From the perspective of 21st century America, however, it's a little cartoonish--but still powerful. --Bill Alward, May 12, 2003