Featured Video: Conclusion of Battleship Potemkin
Riveting Climax of Eisenstein's 1925 Cinema Classic (8:07)
This Web cut, despite its low quality imagery, still manages to convey some of the suspense, majesty, and uplifting artistry of this classic propaganda film. The montage -- cutting between shots of engine pistons working, smoke boiling from the stacks, sea rushing past, wake curling to the horizon, guns training restlessly -- was a new technique at the time and was widely copied in Hollywood, London, and Berlin film studios. As the clash of the mutinous Potemkin with the loyal tsarist fleet approaches, the suspense is built by making the cuts faster and faster, while the music (live orchestral music performed in synchrony with the silent film) grows faster, louder, and more percussive. There is fine detail of the 6-in guns being readied, ammo being carried from the lifts to the guns, and Comrade Afanasy Matyushenko commanding from the wheelhouse. Besides Potemkin, the whole strength of the ex-Tsarist Black Sea Fleet appears in this sequence, including the pre-dreadnought 12 Apostles, the semi-dreadnought Andrei Pervozvanny, and the triple-turreted dreadnought Parizhskaya Kommunna (ex-Sevastopol). The latter ship was not commissioned until 1914, although the Potemkin mutiny took place in 1905. Finally, there must have been an enormous budget for replacement sailors' caps, considering the number tossed in the air in this cinematic celebration of brotherhood!
Historically this bit of storytelling is suspect, as are other parts of the film. It is not so much that Eisenstein made up the story, as that he presented it very selectively to prove the "party line" point of view. There was indeed a confrontation between the fleet and the Potemkin and no shots were fired; indeed one battleship and a torpedo boat joined the Potemkin in mutiny -- for the moment. The implication that her mere presence inspired a mass mutiny in the entire Black Sea Fleet is sheer nonsense, however. On the plus side, the film manages to provide a good dose of suspense with a peaceful resolution, unlike the blood'n'guts gore-fests that have become standard fare in western cinema. Would we have such eruptions of senseless violence and sadism in our society without having bloody murder splashed all over our TV screens night after night? There is one way to find out, but this writer will be mghty surprised if Hollywood buys into it.
The subtle detail of the battleship shots is almost completely lost in the transition to muddy Web video. If you like what you see here, you might want to purchase the beautifully restored film from Kino International -- complete with the original score recorded in digital stereo sound -- a much brighter and more fitting score than the dainty strings used in this Web version! Owning this DVD is a must for all true battleship buffs -- and for movie aficionados too.