Review of Battleship Potemkin (1925) by Gabo T — 14 Aug 2008
A lot has been made of Eisenstein's editing achievements that came to a head in this movie, but I was still amazed at how modern this movie seemed. I've seen a lot of silent movies, but none of them are cut like this one.
Most silent films focus on expressing a rich image, but Eisenstein is interested in putting moving images together to create an emotional impact, and he succeeds brilliantly. While 'Battleship Potemkin' is essentially a propoganda film, that doesn't make this movie any less impressive.
there aren't any characters the movie focuses, there are key characters, but no one has a character arc. Only the collective, the people, have an arc in this film. Don't simply watch the Odessa Staircase sequence out of context when studying this film for the first time, watch the whole film front to back as it is full of great examples of editing techniques that are still used today.
It's cliche to say, but this is one of the true watermarks in cinema, and anyone with filmmaking ambitions should own a copy.
This review of Battleship Potemkin (1925) was written by Gabo T on 14 Aug 2008.
Battleship Potemkin has generally received very positive reviews.
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