Battleship Potemkin

Widely considered one of the greatest movies ever made, Battleship Potemkin is a masterpiece of cinematic technique that has influenced film directors and editors for nearly a century. In 1925, after viewing his first film, Strike, the Soviet government commissioned director Sergei Eisenstein to make a movie commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1905 Russian Revolution. Though originally intended to be an epic documenting all the events that took place during that milestone year in Russian history, Eisenstein quickly narrowed his focus once he realized that would be impossible in the short time allotted to make the film. He chose the "Black Monday" of June 13, 1905 as his focal point. That was the day the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutinied against their superior officers, spurred by news of workers and peasants revolting against the Czar. Masses of men, women, and children assembled at Odessa harbor after hearing the news of the Potemkin crew's mutiny. In what would become a day long remembered by revolutionaries to come, the Czar's troops then brutally massacred hundreds of people gathered on the Odessa steps. Eisenstein found these events to be the most representative of the class struggle that would eventually climax in the 1917 Russian Revolution. The film's most famous scene is the "Odessa Steps" sequence, in which Eisenstein demonstrated his groundbreaking "montage" technique, where rapid collisions of images, parallel editing, cutting on form, and expansion of time all collide to create a deeper, more complex meaning. Battleship Potemkin was an immediate sensation when it premiered at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater in December 1925. There were initially concerns that the film's content would encourage the spread of communism outside the Soviet Union, but Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were so impressed by Battleship Potemkin during a visit to Moscow that they guaranteed it received distribution in America. Since then, it has become mandatory viewing in film schools, and is often referred to (along with The Birth of a Nation and Citizen Kane) as one of the greatest achievements in motion picture history.

This version of Battleship Potemkin is the 1950 reissue featuring narration, synchronized sound, and a score composed by Nikolai Kryukov for the film's 25th anniversary.