Battleship PotemkinIt is a well-known maxim that history is told by the winners. Battleship Potemkin is a fictionalized account of the mutiny of the eponymous "Potemkin" and its crew against their officers and purported oppressors representing the Imperial Russian Navy in 1905. Following the mutiny and subsequent martyrdom of one of its proponents, the sailor Vakulinchuk (Aleksandr Antonov), the winds of revolution reach the shores of Odessa, which provokes the vengeful military to execute a brutal massacre against the rebellious peasants for supporting the Potemkin's defiance. It is a powerful account, emphasizing the message first, and the truth second.
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Produced in 1925--twenty years after the events of the first Russian revolution--Battleship Potemkin depicts a time in history colored through the lens of sensationalism. Furthermore, what Battleship Potemkin really represents is an early form of nationalist propaganda, fundamentally creating the narrative elements which would set the stage for the cinematic rewriting of history and manipulation of historic and popular events going forward. The film depicts the destitute sailors aboard the battleship as being treated inhumanely, forced to eat rotten food crawling with maggots and abused by their superiors. When they complain of the conditions, they are threatened with punishment--including hanging--by their Admiral, and are on the verge of being executed before Vakulinchuk speaks up in the spirit of camaraderie to encourage his comrades rise up against their oppressors. Battleship Potemkin is filled with romanticized and glorified scenes like this, depicting the imperialists as hateful, petty men, caring nothing for their subordinates, while the "proletariats" are noble, virtuous men, only asking for their fair share--a "spoonful of borscht", as the late Vakulinchuk's memorial placard reads following his death during the insurrection. One of cinema's most celebrated early achievements is "The Odessa Staircase" sequence featured in Battleship Potemkin, in which the inhuman imperial soldiers march on Odessa, descending the stairs and unleashing a hail of bullets upon the peasants rallying for better living conditions. The soldiers emerge as a faceless, uniformed legion, often seen only as a wall of shadows overwhelming over the humble Russian people who become collateral damage by this indifferent, unsympathetic tyranny. In this protracted scene, many simple people are shown suffering mortal wounds, an exploitative plea to the emotions of the audience to sympathize with the revolutionaries in the face of such an evil empire. The culmination of this extreme emotional provocation comes when a slain mother lets go of her baby pram, which bounces precariously down the steps, all the while the soldiers continue their ballistic assault on the populous, ignorant of the infant child in their line of fire. With such a devastating display of the abject amorality of the imperial soldiers, it should come as no surprise that Battleship Potemkin is widely regarded as a powerful film with a pointed political message...never mind that in reality, there never was any massacre at Odessa. The truth always gets in the way of good politics.
For many reasons, it's important to point out that Battleship Potemkin is over ninety years old; and yet, the movie is strikingly fresh and vibrant, largely due to a loving, three year long restoration. However, it should also be observed that Battleship Potemkin is unquestionably a work of propaganda, produced at a time when the Soviet Union--like cinema--was still in its infancy. It could even be argued that the film was commissioned with the intent to solidify the legitimacy of the new nation in the minds of its people and abroad. What is interesting is how effective Battleship Potemkin is at stirring emotions, portraying a clear division between the haves and the have-nots, of the corrupt establishment versus the oppressed communist revolutionaries. The film was exploited by the then-ruling political powers in the U.S.S.R., portraying the advent of communism--and their interpretation of Karl Marx's manifesto--as a "new way" of government across the globe, with the film being one piece of their propaganda machine used to control the emotions (and minds) of their subjects. Viewed from the distance of time today, Battleship Potemkin is so visibly biased and exaggerated in its depictions of the class struggle as to appear farcical, but consider that in 1925--with no identifiable precedent--the film must have had a far different effect on its audience. What makes Battleship Potemkin so insidious is that it exploits the medium by presenting a historical event on film. Since the camera was heretofore presumed to be an "objective" observer, the audience will subconsciously assume that events actually occurred as they were depicted in film...after all, "seeing is believing". Battleship Potemkin establishes several tropes of effective cinematic propaganda; the narrative is unabashedly pointed, and the "good guys" appear humble, while the "bad guys" are presented as sinister, sneering ghouls in stuffed shirts, and are immediately unlikable. The musical score--restored from the original score for the Kino re-release--is full of stirring orchestral music, with big brass horns heralding the revolutionaries rebelling against the tyranny, and a thrilling crescendo of tension-laden tones for the impending naval battle that almost happens. The sailors are presented as knowledgeable and moral, although their dialogue features more communist rhetoric than what you would expect from actual men in the navy. And all aspects counter to Marx's own manifesto--like organized religion and establishment--are satirized and mocked in the fiction of Battleship Potemkin. Audiences today will recognize these positions as outlandish and heavy-handed, but how much propaganda has been infused into our own media and culture that goes unrecognized. After all, one has but to turn on CNN to get a liberal dose of biased reporting, and yet there are those who will espouse its objectivity regardless, meaning that all that's changed about propaganda over the past ninety years is that it's been allowed to grow and dig its roots ever deeper into our collective psyches. Battleship Potemkin exists alongside other historically important films--like Birth of a Nation (1915)--that established the rules of cinema as we know them today, even if they are morally questionable from today's standards. Perhaps the biggest sin of propaganda is that by presenting true events via a dubious plot, it ends up diminishing the actual significance of the events which led to the 1905 Russian revolution, which likely has a grain of truth to it as depicted in Battleship Potemkin. But since the politicians in power at that time felt it more important to create a work of stylized propaganda rather than depict the events accurately, the true history of those martyred for their believes will never be given the proper respect.
Recommended for: Fans of a political film that exists as an early and accomplished piece of propaganda and filmmaking all at once. Do not watch Battleship Potemkin if your intent is for an accurate account of history, unless your historical interests revolve around Soviet subversion and manipulation, in which case it stands as a highly potent early example in the medium.
For many reasons, it's important to point out that Battleship Potemkin is over ninety years old; and yet, the movie is strikingly fresh and vibrant, largely due to a loving, three year long restoration. However, it should also be observed that Battleship Potemkin is unquestionably a work of propaganda, produced at a time when the Soviet Union--like cinema--was still in its infancy. It could even be argued that the film was commissioned with the intent to solidify the legitimacy of the new nation in the minds of its people and abroad. What is interesting is how effective Battleship Potemkin is at stirring emotions, portraying a clear division between the haves and the have-nots, of the corrupt establishment versus the oppressed communist revolutionaries. The film was exploited by the then-ruling political powers in the U.S.S.R., portraying the advent of communism--and their interpretation of Karl Marx's manifesto--as a "new way" of government across the globe, with the film being one piece of their propaganda machine used to control the emotions (and minds) of their subjects. Viewed from the distance of time today, Battleship Potemkin is so visibly biased and exaggerated in its depictions of the class struggle as to appear farcical, but consider that in 1925--with no identifiable precedent--the film must have had a far different effect on its audience. What makes Battleship Potemkin so insidious is that it exploits the medium by presenting a historical event on film. Since the camera was heretofore presumed to be an "objective" observer, the audience will subconsciously assume that events actually occurred as they were depicted in film...after all, "seeing is believing". Battleship Potemkin establishes several tropes of effective cinematic propaganda; the narrative is unabashedly pointed, and the "good guys" appear humble, while the "bad guys" are presented as sinister, sneering ghouls in stuffed shirts, and are immediately unlikable. The musical score--restored from the original score for the Kino re-release--is full of stirring orchestral music, with big brass horns heralding the revolutionaries rebelling against the tyranny, and a thrilling crescendo of tension-laden tones for the impending naval battle that almost happens. The sailors are presented as knowledgeable and moral, although their dialogue features more communist rhetoric than what you would expect from actual men in the navy. And all aspects counter to Marx's own manifesto--like organized religion and establishment--are satirized and mocked in the fiction of Battleship Potemkin. Audiences today will recognize these positions as outlandish and heavy-handed, but how much propaganda has been infused into our own media and culture that goes unrecognized. After all, one has but to turn on CNN to get a liberal dose of biased reporting, and yet there are those who will espouse its objectivity regardless, meaning that all that's changed about propaganda over the past ninety years is that it's been allowed to grow and dig its roots ever deeper into our collective psyches. Battleship Potemkin exists alongside other historically important films--like Birth of a Nation (1915)--that established the rules of cinema as we know them today, even if they are morally questionable from today's standards. Perhaps the biggest sin of propaganda is that by presenting true events via a dubious plot, it ends up diminishing the actual significance of the events which led to the 1905 Russian revolution, which likely has a grain of truth to it as depicted in Battleship Potemkin. But since the politicians in power at that time felt it more important to create a work of stylized propaganda rather than depict the events accurately, the true history of those martyred for their believes will never be given the proper respect.
Recommended for: Fans of a political film that exists as an early and accomplished piece of propaganda and filmmaking all at once. Do not watch Battleship Potemkin if your intent is for an accurate account of history, unless your historical interests revolve around Soviet subversion and manipulation, in which case it stands as a highly potent early example in the medium.