Director Sergei Einstein’s infamous film Battleship Potemkin (1925), is a silent political film about the crew members of the Potemkin Battleship overthrowing the guards and creating a mutiny over poor quality and rations of food. As powerful as this film may be in terms of being a political propaganda tool (specifically during the rise of communism), I find the film to be dull and have little impact in terms of evoking emotion or virtually any interest beyond its historical influences.
Perhaps Battleship Potemkin is purely outdated. Perhaps my attention span has been worn do too much to enjoy or appreciate montages of mechanical parts continuously moving, or masses of people scurrying about for minutes at a time. Perhaps the lack of dialogue simply bores me. These things may all be true. But, the fact of the matter is, Battleship Potemkin is boring and irrelevant. It remains to be seen whether it is boring because it is irrelevant, or it is irrelevant because it is boring. The acting is campy and repetitious and at times, so silly that it’s difficult to determine whether or not what you’re watching is actually a parody of Battleship Potemkin.
Scathing judgements aside, the score of Battleship Potemkin compliments the narrative of the film extremely well. This is what I like about the film the most. The rhythmic and mechanical score was the dialogue to the otherwise silent film. It gave Battleship Potemkin the emotional and atmospheric movement that it lacked in acting, and in monotonous scenes. The absence of dialogue allows the audience to build their own narrative and imagine what we would say to our oppressors, given the opportunity. There are no three dimensional characters in the film to avoid any conflict with the political message that Einstein is trying to emit. That way, it is easier for the audience to put themselves in the shoes of the rebels. The fervent blur of large numbers of people throughout the film creates a feeling of unison and togetherness, compelling the audience to feel merged with the rebels.
Battleship Potemkin is known to be one of the greatest films of all time. What makes a film great? Who gets to decide? I would not say that Battleship Potemkin is one of the greatest films of all time. I would however, say that it is one of the most influential political films of all time. To the people that say they love this film, you don’t have to say that you love it just because of its influence or because Roger Ebert gives it a 4/4 rating. This film is painful to watch, no matter how great of an impact it had on the world. However, respect is due where it is earned and Einstein earned it with every industrial montage and every angry fist thrown in the air.
Angela Amato 