The film is a prime example of theSoviet montage theory of editing, such as in the "Odessa Steps" scene, which became widely influential and often recreated. In 1958, the film was voted onBrussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo.Battleship Potemkin is widely considered one of thegreatest films ever made.[2][3][4] In the most recentSight and Sound critics' poll in 2022, it was voted the fifty-fourth-greatest film of all time, and it had been placed in the top 10 in many previous editions.[5]
The film is set in June 1905; the protagonists of the film are the members of the crew of thePotemkin, a battleship of theImperial Russian Navy'sBlack Sea Fleet. Eisenstein divided the plot into five acts, each with its own title:
The scene begins with two sailors,Matyushenko andVakulinchuk, discussing the need for the crew of thePotemkin, which is anchored off the island ofTendra, to support therevolution then taking place within Russia. After their watch, they and other off-duty sailors are sleeping. As an officer inspects the quarters, he stumbles and takes out his aggression on a sleeping sailor. The ruckus causes Vakulinchuk to awake, and he gives a speech to the men as they come to. Vakulinchuk says, "Comrades! The time has come when we too must speak out. Why wait? All of Russia has risen! Are we to be the last?" The scene cuts to morning, where sailors are remarking on the poor quality of the meat. The meat appears to be rotten and covered in maggots, and the sailors say that "even a dog wouldn't eat this!" The ship's doctor, Smirnov, is called over to inspect the meat by the captain. Rather than maggots, the doctor says that they are insects, and they can be washed off before cooking. The sailors further complain about the poor quality of the rations, but the doctor declares the meat edible and ends the discussion. Senior officerGiliarovsky forces the sailors still looking over the rotten meat to leave the area, and the cook begins to prepareborscht, although he too questions the quality of the meat. The crew refuses to eat the borscht, instead choosing bread, water, and canned goods. While cleaning dishes, one of the sailors sees an inscription on a plate which reads "give us this day our daily bread". After considering the meaning of this phrase, the sailor smashes the plate and the scene ends.
All those who refuse the meat are judged guilty of insubordination and are brought to the fore-deck where they receive religious last rites. The sailors are obliged to kneel and a canvas cover is thrown over them as a firing squad marches onto the deck. The First Officer gives the order to fire, but in response to Vakulinchuk's pleas the sailors in the firing squad lower their rifles and the uprising begins. The sailors overwhelm the outnumbered officers and take control of the ship. The officers are thrown overboard, the ship's priest is dragged out of hiding, and finally the doctor is thrown into the ocean as 'food for the worms'. The mutiny is successful but Vakulinchuk, the charismatic leader of the rebels, is killed.
ThePotemkin arrives at the port ofOdessa. Vakulinchuk's body is taken ashore and displayed publicly by his companions in a tent with a sign on his chest that says "For a spoonful of borscht" (Изъ-за ложки борща). The citizens of Odessa, saddened yet empowered by Vakulinchuk's sacrifice, are soon whipped into a frenzy against the Tsar and his government by sympathizers. A man allied with the government tries to turn the citizens' fury against the Jews, but he is quickly shouted down and beaten by the people. The sailors gather to make a final farewell and praise Vakulinchuk as a hero. The people of Odessa welcome the sailors, but they attract the police as they mobilize against the government.
The citizenry of Odessa take to their boats, sailing out to thePotemkin to support the sailors, while a crowd of others gather at theOdessa steps to witness the happenings and cheer on the rebels. Suddenly a detachment of dismountedCossacks form battle lines at the top of the steps and march toward a crowd of unarmed civilians including women and children, and begin firing and advancing with fixed bayonets. Every now and again, the soldiers halt to fire a volley into the crowd before continuing their impersonal, machine-like assault down the stairs, ignoring the people's pleas. Meanwhile, government cavalry attack the fleeing crowd at the bottom of the steps as well, cutting down many of those who survived the dismounted assault. Brief sequences show individuals among the people fleeing or falling, a baby carriage rolling down the steps, a woman shot in the face, broken glasses, and the high boots of the soldiers moving in unison.[6]
In retaliation, the sailors of thePotemkin use the guns of the battleship to fire on the city opera house, where Tsarist military leaders are convening a meeting. Meanwhile, there is news that a squadron of loyal warships is coming to quell the revolt of thePotemkin.
The sailors of thePotemkin decide to take the battleship out from the port of Odessa to face the fleet of the Tsar, flying thered flag along with the signal "Join us". Just when battle seems inevitable, the sailors of the Tsarist squadron refuse to open fire, cheering and shouting to show solidarity with the mutineers and allowing thePotemkin to pass between their ships.
On the 20th anniversary of thefirst Russian revolution, the commemorative commission of theAll-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to stage a number of performances dedicated to the revolutionary events of 1905. As part of the celebrations, it was suggested that a "... grand film [be] shown in a special program, with an oratory introduction, musical (solo and orchestral) and a dramatic accompaniment based on a specially written text".[7]Nina Agadzhanova was asked to write the script and direction of the picture was assigned to 27-year-oldSergei Eisenstein.[8]
Eisenstein hired many non-professional actors for the film; he sought people of specific types instead of famous stars.[10][9]
Shooting began on 31 March 1925. Eisenstein began filming in Leningrad and had time to shoot the railway strike episode,horsecar, city at night and the strike crackdown on Sadovaya Street. Further shooting was prevented by deteriorating weather, with fog setting in. At the same time, the director faced tight time constraints: the film needed to be finished by the end of the year, although the script was approved only on 4 June. Eisenstein decided to give up the original script consisting of eight episodes, to focus on just one, the uprising on thebattleshipPotemkin, which involved just a few pages (41 frames) from Agadzhanova's script. Eisenstein andGrigori Aleksandrov essentially recycled and extended the script.[11] In addition, during the progress of making the film, some episodes were added that had existed neither in Agadzhanova's script nor in Eisenstein's scenic sketches, such as the storm scene with which the film begins. As a result, the content of the film was far removed from Agadzhanova's original script.
The film was shot inOdessa, at that time a center of film production where it was possible to find a suitable warship for shooting.
The first screening of the film took place on 21 December 1925 at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the anniversary of the 1905 revolution at theBolshoi Theatre.[12][13] The premiere was held in Moscow on 18 January 1926, in the 1st Goskinoteatre (now called theKhudozhestvenny).[14][15]
The silent film received a voice dubbing in 1930, was restored in 1950 (composer Nikolai Kryukov) and reissued in 1976 (composerDmitri Shostakovich) atMosfilm with the participation of theUSSR State Film Fund and the Museum of S.M. Eisenstein under the artistic direction ofSergei Yutkevich.
In 1925, after sale of the film's negatives to Germany and reediting by directorPhil Jutzi,Battleship Potemkin was released internationally in a different version from that originally intended. The attempted execution of sailors was moved from the beginning to the end of the film. Later it was subjected to censorship, and in the USSR some frames and intermediate titles were removed. The words ofLeon Trotsky in the prologue were replaced with a quote fromLenin.[15] In 2005, under the overall guidance of the FoundationDeutsche Kinemathek, with the participation of the State Film Fund and theRussian State Archive of Literature and Art, the author's version of the film was restored, including the music byEdmund Meisel.[16]
The battleshipKniaz Potemkin Tarritcheski, later renamedPanteleimon and thenBoretz Za Svobodu, was derelict and in the process of being scrapped at the time of the film shoot. It is usually stated that the battleshipDvenadsat Apostolov was used instead, but she was a very different design of vessel from that of thePotemkin, and the film footage matches the battleshipRostislav more closely. TheRostislav had been scuttled in 1920, but hersuperstructure remained completely above water until 1930. Interior scenes were filmed on the cruiserKomintern. Stock footage ofPotemkin was used to show her at sea, and stock footage of the French fleet depicted the waiting Russian Black Sea fleet. Anachronistic footage of triple-gun-turret Russiandreadnoughts was also included.[17][9]
In the film, the rebels raise a red flag on the battleship, but theorthochromatic black-and-white film stock of the period made the color red look black, so a white flag was used instead. Eisenstein hand-tinted the flag in red in 108 frames for the premiere at the Grand Theatre, which was greeted with thunderous applause by the Bolshevik audience.[15]
"Men and Maggots" (Люди и черви), in which the sailors protest having to eat rotten meat.
"Drama on the Deck" (Драма на тендре), in which the sailors mutiny and their leader Vakulinchuk is killed.
"A Dead Man Calls for Justice" (Мёртвый взывает), in whichVakulinchuk's body is mourned by the people ofOdessa.
"TheOdessa Steps" (Одесская лестница), in which imperial soldiers massacre the Odessans.
"One against all" (Встреча с эскадрой), in which the squadron tasked with intercepting the Potemkin instead declines to engage; lowering their guns, its sailors cheer on the rebellious battleship and join the mutiny.
Eisenstein wrote the film as revolutionary propaganda,[18][19] but also used it to test his theories ofmontage.[20] The revolutionary Soviet filmmakers of theKuleshov school of filmmaking were experimenting with the effect offilm editing on audiences, and Eisenstein attempted to edit the film in such a way as to produce the greatest emotional response, so that the viewer would feel sympathy for the rebellious sailors of the BattleshipPotemkin and hatred for their overlords. In the manner of mostpropaganda, the characterization is simple, so that the audience could clearly see with whom they should sympathize.
TheVorontsov Palace lion sculptures featured by Eisenstein, ca 1910-1913
A notable example of Eisenstein's montage technique is the sequence featuring the lion statues at theVorontsov Palace inCrimea. The statues—a sleeping lion, a waking lion, and one rising to its feet—are edited in succession to create the illusion of movement, symbolizing the revolutionary awakening. These statues were modeled after theMedici Lions of Renaissance Italy, linking classical art to the film's modern revolutionary themes.[21]
Eisenstein's experiment was a mixed success; he "was disappointed whenPotemkin failed to attract masses of viewers",[22] but the film was also released in a number of international venues, where audiences responded positively. In both the Soviet Union and overseas, the film shocked audiences, but not so much for its political statements as for its use of violence, which was considered graphic by the standards of the time.[23][24][25] The film's potential to influence political thought through emotional response was noted by Nazi propaganda ministerJoseph Goebbels, who calledPotemkin "a marvelous film without equal in the cinema ... anyone who had no firm political conviction could become aBolshevik after seeing the film."[25][26] He was even interested in getting Germans to make a similar film. Eisenstein did not like the idea and wrote an indignant letter to Goebbels in which he stated thatNational Socialistic realism did not have either truth or realism.[27] The film was not banned inNazi Germany, althoughHeinrich Himmler issued a directive prohibitingSS members from attending screenings, as he deemed the movie inappropriate for the troops.[25] The film was eventually banned in some countries, including the United States and France for a time, as well as in its native Soviet Union. The film was banned in the United Kingdom longer than was any other film in British history.[28]
One of the most celebrated scenes in the film is the massacre of civilians on theOdessa Steps (also known as the Primorsky orPotemkin Stairs). This sequence has been assessed as a "classic"[29] and one of the most influential in the history of cinema.[30][31] In the scene, theTsar's soldiers in their white summer tunics march down a seemingly endless flight of steps in a rhythmic, machine-like fashion, firing volleys into a crowd. A separate detachment of mountedCossacks charges the crowd at the bottom of the stairs. The victims include an older woman wearingpince-nez, a young boy with his mother, a student in uniform and a teenage schoolgirl. A mother pushing an infant in a baby carriage falls to the ground dying and the carriage rolls down the steps amid the fleeing crowd.
The massacre on the steps, although it did not take place in daylight[32] or as portrayed,[33] was based on the fact that there were widespread riots in other parts of the city, sparked off by the arrival of thePotemkin in Odessa Harbour. BothThe Times and the resident Britishconsul reported that troops fired on the rioters; deaths were reportedly in the hundreds.[34]Roger Ebert writes, "That there was, in fact, no tsarist massacre on the Odessa Steps scarcely diminishes the power of the scene ... It is ironic that [Eisenstein] did it so well that today, the bloodshed on the Odessa steps is often referred to as if it really happened."[35]
"Odessa Steps" sequence
The boots of the soldiers shown marching down the Odessa Steps
A baby in a carriage falling down the Odessa Steps
British painterFrancis Bacon called thisBattleship Potemkin image a "catalyst" for his work.Soviet Union-born American photographerAlexey Titarenko paid tribute to the Odessa Steps shot in his seriesCity Of Shadows (St. Petersburg, 1991).
The scene is perhaps the best example of Eisenstein's theory on montage, and many films pay homage to the scene, including:
Artists and others influenced by the work include:
The Irish-born painterFrancis Bacon (1909–1992). Eisenstein's images profoundly influenced Bacon, particularly the Odessa Steps shot of the nurse's broken glasses and open-mouthed scream. The open mouth image appeared first in Bacon'sAbstraction from the Human Form, inFragment of a Crucifixion, and other works including his famousHead series.[38]
The Soviet Union-born photographer and artistAlexey Titarenko was inspired by and paid tribute to the Odessa Steps sequence in his seriesCity of Shadows (1991–1993), shot near the subway station inSaint Petersburg.[39]
The popular culture periodical (and website)Odessa Steps Magazine, started in 2000, is named after the sequence.
The 2011 October Revolution parade in Moscow featured a homage to the film.[40]
Episode 2 of Japanese animationErgo Proxy titled "Confessions of a Fellow Citizen".
After its first screening, the film was not distributed in the Soviet Union and there was a danger that it would be lost among other productions. PoetVladimir Mayakovsky intervened because his good friend, poetNikolai Aseev, had participated in the making of the film's intertitles. Mayakovsky's opposing party was Sovkino's presidentKonstantin Shvedchikov. He was a politician and friend of Vladimir Lenin who once hid Lenin in his home before the Revolution. Mayakovsky presented Shvedchikov with a hard demand that the film would be distributed abroad, and intimidated Shvedchikov with the fate of becoming a villain in history books. Mayakovsky's closing sentence was "Shvedchikovs come and go, but art remains. Remember that!" Besides Mayakovsky many others also persuaded Shvedchikov to spread the film around the world and after constant pressure from Sovkino he eventually sent the film to Berlin. ThereBattleship Potemkin became a huge success, and the film was again screened in Moscow.[9]
WhenDouglas Fairbanks andMary Pickford visited Moscow in July 1926, they were full of praise forBattleship Potemkin; Fairbanks helped distribute the film in the U.S., and even asked Eisenstein to go to Hollywood. In the U.S. the film premiered in New York on 5 December 1926, at theBiltmore Theatre.[41][42]
The film was shown in an edited form in Germany, with some scenes of extreme violence edited out by German distributors. A written introduction by Trotsky was cut from Soviet prints after he ran afoul ofStalin. The film was banned in the United Kingdom[43][44] (until 1954; it was then X-rated[45][46] until 1987[47]), France, Japan, and other countries for its revolutionary zeal.[48]
Today the film is widely available in various DVD editions. In 2004, a three-year restoration of the film was completed. Many excised scenes of violence were restored, as well as the original written introduction by Trotsky. The previous Englishintertitles, which had toned down the mutinous sailors' revolutionary rhetoric, were corrected so that they would now be an accurate translation of the original Russian titles.
Another version was created in 1926.[51] Being part of collections of museums such asValencia'sIVAM,[52] shows a much clearer image.[52] Using a central romboid figure with theBattleship on it, combinesgraphic design andphotomontage to create an image where the Battleship is the main protagonist.[52] The clear image contrasts with the aggressive use ofpainting,[53] whereas the diagonal lines are also a recognizable trait of the work.[53]
There is also a poster where the central figure is asailor, with the Battleship on the central background.[54]
To retain its relevance as a propaganda film for each new generation, Eisenstein hoped the score would be rewritten every 20 years. The original score was composed byEdmund Meisel. A salon orchestra performed the Berlin premiere in 1926. The instruments were flute/piccolo, trumpet, trombone, harmonium, percussion and strings without viola. Meisel wrote the score in twelve days because of the late approval of film censors. As time was so short Meisel repeated sections of the score. Composer/conductor Mark-Andreas Schlingensiepen has reorchestrated the original piano score to fit the version of the film available today.
Nikolai Kryukov composed a new score in 1950 for the 25th anniversary. In 1985, Chris Jarrett composed a solo piano accompaniment for the movie. In 1986Eric Allaman wrote an electronic score for a showing that took place at the 1986Berlin International Film Festival. The music was commissioned by the organizers, who wanted to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the film's German premiere. The score was played only at this premiere and has not been released on CD or DVD. Contemporary reviews were largely positive apart from negative comment because the music was electronic. Allaman also wrote an opera about Battleship Potemkin, which is musically separate from the film score.
In commercial format, on DVD for example, the film is usually accompanied by classical music added for the "50th anniversary edition" released in 1975. Three symphonies fromDmitri Shostakovich have been used, withNo. 5, beginning and ending the film, being the most prominent. A version of the film offered by theInternet Archive has a soundtrack that also makes heavy use of the symphonies of Shostakovich, including hisFourth,Fifth,Eighth,Tenth, andEleventh.
In an attempt to make the film relevant to the 21st century,Neil Tennant andChris Lowe (of thePet Shop Boys) composed a soundtrack in 2004 with the Dresden Symphonic Orchestra. Their soundtrack, released in 2005 asBattleship Potemkin, premiered in September 2004 at an open-air concert inTrafalgar Square, London. There were four further live performances of the work with the Dresdner Sinfoniker in Germany in September 2005, and one at theSwan Hunter shipyard inNewcastle upon Tyne in 2006.
In 2007, Del Rey & The Sun Kings released a soundtrack for the film.
The avant-garde jazz ensembleClub Foot Orchestra has also re-scored the film, and performed live accompanying the film with a score by Richard Marriott, conducted by Deirdre McClure. For the 2005 restoration of the film, under the direction ofEnno Patalas in collaboration with Anna Bohn, released on DVD and Blu-ray, theDeutsche Kinemathek - Museum fur Film und Fernsehen, commissioned a re-recording of the original Edmund Meisel score, performed by the Babelsberg Orchestra, conducted by Helmut Imig. In 2011 the most recent restoration was completed with an entirely new soundtrack by members of the Apskaft group. Contributing members were AER20-200, awaycaboose, Ditzky, Drn Drn, Foucault V, fydhws, Hox Vox, Lurholm, mexicanvader, Quendus, Res Band, -Soundso- and speculativism. The entire film was digitally restored to a sharper image by Gianluca Missero (who records under the name Hox Vox). The new version is available at theInternet Archive.[55]
A new score forBattleship Potemkin was composed in 2011 byMichael Nyman, and is regularly performed by the Michael Nyman Band. The Berklee Silent Film Orchestra also composed a new score for the film in 2011, and performed it live to picture at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C. A new electroacoustic score by the composers collectiveEdison Studio was first performed live in Naples at Cinema Astra for Scarlatti Contemporanea Festival on 25 October 2017[56] and published on DVD[57] in 5.1 surround sound byCineteca di Bologna in the "L'Immagine Ritrovata" series, along with a second audio track with a recording of the Meisel's score conducted by Helmut Imig.
The film's centenary in 2025 was marked by the release in cinemas of a restored version byDeutsche Kinemathek with the Tennant/Lowe score. TheBFI issued this restored film on Blu-ray along with a CD of the score, whileParlophone also released the score on remastered CD and on vinyl as a double LP.[58]
Battleship Potemkin has received acclaim from modern critics. On review aggregate websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an overall100% approval rating based on 51 reviews, with a rating average of 9.2/10. The site's consensus reads, "A technical masterpiece,Battleship Potemkin is Soviet cinema at its finest, and its montage editing techniques remain influential to this day."[59]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 97 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[60]
Since its releaseBattleship Potemkin has often been cited as one of the finest propaganda films ever made, and is considered one of the greatest films of all time.[23][61] The film was named thegreatest film of all time at theBrussels World's Fair in 1958.[3] Similarly, in 1952,Sight & Sound magazine citedBattleship Potemkin as the fourth-greatest film of all time; it was voted within the top ten in the magazine's five subsequent decennial polls, dropping to number 11 in the 2012 poll and number 54 in 2022.[62]
In 2007, a two-disc, restored version of the film was released on DVD.Time magazine'sRichard Corliss named it one of the Top 10 DVDs of the year, ranking it at #5.[63] It ranked #3 inEmpire's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.[64] In April 2011,Battleship Potemkin was re-released in UK cinemas, distributed by theBritish Film Institute. On its re-release,Total Film magazine gave the film a five-star review, stating: "nearly 90 years on, Eisenstein's masterpiece is still guaranteed to get the pulse racing".[65]
^"What Eisenstein created was the action sequence, which is absolutely vital to any modern film. ... Eisenstein's editing techniques have been used in any film made since that features any type of action sequence at all." Dylan Rambow (25 April 2015),"20 Influential Silent Films Every Movie Buff Should See",Taste of Cinema.
^"During the night there were ... fierce conflicts between the troops and the rioters. The dead are reckoned in hundreds." "Havoc in the Town and Harbour",The Times, 30 June 1905, p. 5.
^Bryher (1922).Film Problems Of Soviet Russia. Riant Chateau TERRITET Switzerland. p. 31.
^"Battleship Potemkin".British Board of Film Classification. 11 January 1954. Retrieved24 December 2024.Mild violence occurs during a massacre on the Odessa Steps which shows several people being shot and trampled on, with brief sight of bloody detail on the faces of the dead and injured.
^"Battleship Potemkin".British Board of Film Classification. 16 November 1987. Retrieved24 December 2024.Mild violence occurs during a massacre on the Odessa Steps which shows several people being shot and trampled on, with brief sight of bloody detail on the faces of the dead and injured.
"Potemkin sailor monument".2odessa.com. Archived fromthe original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved22 August 2006. Monument in Odessa, explanation of the mutiny.
Russo-Japanese War Connections Rebellion or Mutiny on thePotemkin had connection to Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05-Russian Navy morale was severely damaged.
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