Rating: 
Summary: I Loath Communism but This Movie is Great
Review: Sergei Eisenstein's (1898-1948) most memorable contribution to the craft of filmmaking undoubtedly is the concept of the montage along with other important editing techniques that are commonplace today. This director's first film, "Strike," concerning the brutal repression of a worker's strike by Czarist soldiers, led to more projects: "October," "Battleship Potemkin," "Old and New," and "Alexander Nevsky." He died of a heart attack before completing his last film, the historical epic "Ivan the Terrible." Unfortunately, Eisenstein's revolutionary (no pun intended) restructuring of the motion picture occurred in movies promoting communism. Eisenstein's films glorified the brutal regime founded by Vladimir Lenin and perpetuated by Uncle Joe Stalin, a regime that ultimately killed tens of millions of innocent souls. Watching an Eisenstein film fills me with a strange sensation: I despise the propaganda in this film, but at the same time, I cannot help connecting with this film on an emotional level. That emotional reaction, of course, is exactly what Eisenstein hoped to achieve with his projects."Battleship Potemkin" takes place during the tumultuous events of the 1905 Russian Revolution, the first revolutionary effort against the Czarist regime and the one that led to a grudging acceptance of a constitutional monarchy by the autocratic Romanov dynasty. This attempt to transform the decaying Russian state ultimately failed due to the ability of the monarch to dissolve the Duma anytime he chose to do so, and veto any legislation that this parliamentary body proposed. The Potemkin figures into this series of events because the sailors aboard the ship mutinied and threw their support to the revolutionaries. Nothing much happened after this event, as the sailors eventually docked the ship in Constanza, Romania and surrendered the boat in exchange for refuge. In the hands of master propagandist Eisenstein, however, the Potemkin incident morphs into a major event that led to the eventual abdication of Nicholas II in 1917. Eisenstein seems to get most of the story straight: a piece of maggot infested meat serves as the final indignity to the sailors of the Potemkin. Under the leadership of one of the men on the ship, Vakulenchuk, the men protest to the captain about the squalid food. The result is Vakulenchuk's death and the revolt of the sailors. Seven officers die in the mutiny and the ship sails to Odessa, the Russian port on the Black Sea. There, the martyred Vakulenchuk's body lies in state where thousands of residents turn out to pay their respects. The people supply the sailors with food and the ship starts to sail off. Unfortunately, the regime sends in soldiers to quell the crowds gathering to see the dead sailor. Shots ring out, and thousands die under Czarist rifles. In the movie, the Potemkin retaliates by shelling the opera house in the city, supposedly the headquarters of the murderous soldiers. At this point, Eisenstein goes completely outside of the historical record by showing the Potemkin taking the offensive against the entire Black Sea fleet. Even more remarkably, the Potemkin convinces the fleet to join them in the revolt! Sure, this movie is one long propaganda piece from start to finish, but it is an amazingly effective package of lies. The importance of class appears in the movie right from the start, when we see the sailors interact with the smug Czarist officers on the ship. The outpouring of citizens from the city to see Vakulenchuk's body turns into a recognition of class-consciousness by the outraged proletariats, who yell slogans like "One for all" and demand the ouster of the Czar. When the soldiers appear and begin to kill the people, we see Eisenstein in his element. These scenes are simply remarkable in the sheer emotional power of the murder of a young boy and a baby killed by a sword wielding Cossack. Close up shots of faces awash in ecstasy over the coming together of the crowd quickly contrast with the same faces expressing sheer horror over the slaughter of thousands of innocents. All of this cinematic glory is held together with a Shostokovich score of epic implications. You even get a slap at the Church in the form of a malevolent looking priest tapping a crucifix against the palm of his hand as the officers on the Potemkin form a firing squad. Few films pack this type of dramatic punch. The montages really grab your attention. During the beginning of the movie, a boiling pot of soup conveys the larger sense of the emotional turmoil on the ship. When the Potemkin sails towards the Black Sea fleet, Eisenstein presents a sequence of shots showing the machinery of the ship pounding away as the showdown nears, probably in an attempt to express the powerful drive of revolutionary fervor. There are many more such images in the film, far too many to mention here. A big part of viewing an Eisenstein film is seeing how many symbolic images you can find. When you tire of playing this game with "Battleship Potemkin," watch "Alexander Nevsky" and look for all of the references to Germany. Eisenstein's film is a true classic in every sense of the word, and anyone even remotely interested in movies should watch it. I'm glad I did.
Rating:
Summary: It simply blows your mind.
Review: I had the opportunity recently here in Germany to watch Potemkin in the big cinema with live music - played by a combo from Berlin (violin, drummer, bass and piano), that had written a new score for the film. They showed a restored version with the original russian subtitles. I had seen the film before in offside university cinemas with canned music and on tape, but I never realized what an impact the film can have. It simply blows your mind. The live music turned the film into a totally different expierence. Now I can unterstand why the film caused such turmoil back in the Twenties in Europe. It was banned repeatedly. The governments were afraid of it's impact, as well they should have been. Can you say that of any film today? The original music by Edmund Meisel - who by the way set new standards for film scores with his music for Potemkin - combined with the film genius of Eisenstein to create a film that transcended the normal cinema. It just didn't comment about politics, it created politics. I consider myself a pacifist - but while experiencing the film I had the feeling I ought to stand up, get out a red flag and blow up the next Townhall. The film - with the right music - can have that much of an impact. I was literally shaking during the "Odessa steps" sequence, largley due to the pounding music that accompanied the slaughter of the cossaks on the civilians.
I've never had that deep of an expierence in the cinema before with the possible exception of Kubrick's "2001" and Alexandro Jodorowsky's "El Topo", but I was high both times then. With Potemkin and the right music you don't need any help.
What I mean to say - Find the chance to experience the film the way it was meant to be expierenced. Full screen, the original version und live music. And by that I don't mean a single piano. It's got to be more. The movie will rip you out of the chair. Then you will realize what a masterpiece Eisenstein created.
Rating:
Summary: Potemkin -- 30 years later
Review: I first saw this movie as a very young man, in its non-electronic, celluloid version. Undoubtedly the film is a great tour de force. Seeing it again recently in the electronic version still impressed me; but I tended to focus on things I missed in my first viewing. First, there is the overly exaggerated, negative characterization of the officers -- and especially -- the priest. Second, when the mutineers decide to avenge their fallen comrade, what do they pick for destruction? The Opera House! Come now, wasn't there some structure with more obvious ties to the oppressive officers?
But the real things to catch my eye were things in the background: 1) the many small pleasure sailboats in the harbor (were these still common when the movie was made, or were they specially brought in); 2) the cosmopolitan nature of the Odessa street crowd; 3) the machinery and fittings of the battleship.
Oh, one more thing: the movie fails to mention (for obvious reasons) that the whole thing ended sort of ingloriously. After steaming around for a while, and failing to get anyone else to join them, the mutineers interred the Potemkin in Rumania.
Rating:
Summary: Plain and Simple
Review: Yes, it is plain and simple the greatest of all films. My criteria is personal and I do not want to get pretentious with the viewer. Eisenstein did not invent montage, nor the the medium of what presents it. This film simple displays the power of individual reaction to a chain of events and upon each viewing different perspectives are realized. Only a few films belong in this company(Renior comes to mind). Often imitated , never surpassed, no matter how many times viewed-I am always moved. Propaganda properly realized, and expanded. A masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA, AWKWARDLY MADE
Review: If we must denounce D.W. Griffith's film "The Birth of a Nation" for glorifying (and helping to contribute to the resurgence of) the evil Ku Klux Klan, then why must we not also denounce Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin" for glorifying (and helping to contribute to the cause of) Russian communism, which caused the enslavement and murder of hundreds of millions of innocent people? As long as "Birth" is damned, "Potemkin" should be, too. It is Russia's "Triumph of the Will." By the way, Eisenstein as a filmmaker is hopelessly awkward as compared to Griffith. Just compare "Birth"'s famous "riders to the rescue" climax to "Potemkin"'s equally famous "Odessa steps" sequence. Where Griffith is lucid, understandable, and exciting, Eisenstein is clunky, confusing, and dull. You keep waiting for something really interesting to happen in the "Odessa steps" sequence and in all of "Potemkin" ... and it doesn't.
Rating:
Summary: Hang on a minute!
Review: Why is a Soviet film never reviewed as a FILM? "Potemkin" is not the best of Eisenstein's films (that without question is "Ivan the Terrible") but it is nevertheless a landmark in cinema, employing techniques which, although adopted by most film makers in Europe in the 1930's, still have not filtered down to the comercially based "industry" in Hollywood. Rather than appreciate this masterpeice for what it is, all USA based reviewers insist in qualifying their praise by saying it is "propaganda". US Cinema from "Birth of a Nation" to "Saving Private Ryan" was, of course, not "propaganda" but objective "art"(!). I can only surmize that the purpose of such reviews (some of which come from, apparently, respectable US academics) is to discourage the viewer of Soviet films from taking on board the internal message, which is vital to the understanding of any film (a point on which they would not disagree if they where discussing a film made in the US). Do not be put off! This is a genuinely great film, and if you watch it without sub-intellectual prejudice, you shall enjoy it all the more. Happy viewing. Colin.
Rating:
Summary: Eisenstein has won the Battle of Cinema Brilliance.
Review: This is the most important film ever made. It set the foundation for both artistic and technological endeavors for the past 80 years of cinema. The editing and music is so overpowering that you forget that it's a silent black and white movie. The experience during "BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN" is one of a kind. Any one seriously considering to pursue any aspect of filmmaking must view this film at least once (see it as much as you can!). This shows how film "can" be an artform. This was a feat ahead of it's time and still holds an intensity today. One of my many inspirations as a director. Buy it and enjoy a film unlike anything you've ever seen (or heard) before. This DVD edition retains the closest resemblence to the director's vision. The cuts in the legendary Odesa Steps sequence is as close to the original as possible.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, Seldom Equaled
Review: Based on actual events of 1905, silent film THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN concerns an Imperial Russian ship on which abominable conditions lead to a mutiny. Shocked by conditions on the ship, citizens of the port city Odessa rally to the mutineers' support--and in consequence find themselves at the mercy of Imperial forces, who attack the civilian supporters with savage force. POTEMKIN is a film in which individual characters are much less important than the groups and crowds of which they are members, and it achieves its incredible power by showing the clash of the groups and crowds in a series of extraordinarily visualized and edited sequences. Amazingly, each of these sequences manage to top the previous one, and the film actually builds in power as it moves from the mutiny to the citizen's rally to the massacre on the Odessa steps--the latter of which is among the most famous sequences in all of film history. Filming largely where the real events actually occurred, director Eisenstein's vision is extraordinary as he builds--not only from sequence to sequence but from moment to moment within each sequence--some of the most memorable images ever committed to film. To describe POTEMKIN as a great film is something of an understatement. It is an absolute essential, an absolute necessity to any one seriously interested in cinema as an art form, purely visual cinema at its most brilliant, often imitated, seldom equaled, never bested.
Rating: 
Summary: This is not Kryukov's soundtrack
Review: I have seen "Battleship Potemkin" on a VHS tape from Hendring with the
stirring musical score by Nikolai Kryukov from 1951. I have also seen
the restored version from 1976 on Soviet and Danish TV in the 1980's.
The latter version has a soundtrack put together from pieces of music
by Shostakovich which is much less exciting than the one from the
fifties. Kryukov really managed to make the music support and
reinforce the power of the images and the rousing, rebellious spirit
of the film. Without being an expert on music, I can only guess that
one of the reasons for this could be Kryukovs more extensive use of
brass instruments as opposed to the shrill strings of Shostakovich.
Kryukov also seems to make more extensive use of themes from
well-known marches of the communist movement. The musical score from
1976 is not really bad, but it lacks the intensity of the older one,
it doesn't always fit in with the action on screen in the same degree
and it is sometimes rather dull compared to Kryukov's soundtrack. Therefore, I was enthusiastic about finally getting hold of a
high-quality DVD which, according to the Amazon review, was supposed
to contain Kryukov's soundtrack. I was disappointed upon playing it
to realize that this DVD from Image Entertainment and Corinth Films
only contains the version from 1976 with music by Shostakovich, in
spite of the text "This print has a musical soundtrack scored by
N. Kruikov i 1951" on the back cover. So the packaging of this DVD
doesn't correspond to the actual contents. Apart from this, it is of course a great film and much more exciting
than most films of today. The image quality of this DVD is probably
as good as can be expected for this film, i.e. as good as the quality
of the TV broadcasts in the 1980's. But the main title and credits
were in Russian on TV, whereas Corinth Films has replaced them with
extremely ugly ones in English for this edition. For no good reason,
it seems, since most of the captions still are in Russian with English
subtitles throughout the film. A really good DVD edition of "Battleship Potemkin" should of course
contain at least both versions, the one with Kryukov's soundtrack from
1951 and the restored version from 1976. Even better would be one
with the Meisel soundtrack as well and why not a new re-recording of
Kryukov's soundtrack in hifi-stereo, too. A corresponding
re-recording of the soundtrack for Eisenstein's sound film Alexander
Nevsky with a symphony orchestra has in fact been made. But a VHS tape is good enough to give full justice to the resolution
of this old film, so don't buy it on DVD if you already have it on
VHS. Myself, I still would like to get hold of a good DVD with
Kruykov's soundtrack and I wouldn't have bought this one if the
information about the soundtrack had been correct.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece of it's time
Review: If were to make a top 10 list for my favorite movies this one would be number 2. From it's time and Taking a film class I have been very open to watching silent fims and This one was the best that I have ever seen up til now. It shows on how things were developed into today's time with war movies and to the classic " Odesa Steps" scene, refering to The untouchables in 1984. It's a one of a kind masterpiece that all movie goers as myself will appreciate of it's time.
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