The Battleship Potemkin
Directed by	Sergei Eisenstein
Produced by	Jacob Bliokh
Written by	Nina Agadzhanova Nikolai Aseyev Sergei M. Eisenstein Sergei Tretyakov
Distributed by	Goskino
Release date(s)	December 21, 1925 December 5, 1926 (NYC only)
Running time	75 min.
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Silent film Russian intertitles
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Battleship Potemkin (Russian: Броненосец «Потёмкин», Bronenosets Potyomkin), sometimes rendered as The Battleship Potyomkin, is a 1925 silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and produced by Mosfilm. It presents a glorified version of the Battleship Potemkin uprising, a real-life event that occurred in 1905 when the crew of a Russian battleship rebelled against their oppressive officers during the Tsarist regime. Image File history File links Vintage_Potemkin. ... Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, Latvian: Sergejs EizenÅ¡teins) (January 23, 1898 – February 11, 1948) was a revolutionary Soviet film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and Oktober. ... Nikolay Nikolaevich Aseev, Николай Николаевич Асеев (1889-1963) was a Russian poet. ... Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн) (January 23, 1898–February 11, 1948) was a Russian director noted for his films Battleship Potemkin and Oktober, both... Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov (Riga, 1892 – September 10, 1937) was a Russian constructivist writer, playwright and special correspondent for Pravda. ... Goskino or USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Госкино, Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР, Gosudarstvenyy komitet po kinematografii SSSR) was the supreme government organ in charge of cinematography of the Soviet Union It was absorbed by the USSR Ministry of Culture in 1953, it became an independent organization again in 1963. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... December 5 is the 339th day (340th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... New York, New York redirects here. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ... See also: 1924 in film 1925 1926 in film 1920s in film years in film film Events Top grossing films Ben-Hur His People The Unholy Three The Freshman Movies released Movies released in 1925 include: Ben-Hur, starring Ramon Novarro. ... A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ... Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, Latvian: Sergejs EizenÅ¡teins) (January 23, 1898 – February 11, 1948) was a revolutionary Soviet film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and Oktober. ... Mosfilm logo was the Statue of the Worker and Kolkhoznitsa at VDNKh Mosfilm film studio (in Cyrillic, Мосфи́льм) is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Russian battleship Potemkin. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... Tsar (Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian цар, Russian  , in scientific transliteration respectively car and car ), occasionally spelled Czar or Tzar and sometimes Csar or Zar in English, is a Slavonic term designating certain monarchs. ...

Potemkin has been called one of the most influential films of all time, and it was even named the greatest film of all time at the World's Fair at Brussels, Belgium, in 1958. Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... While it is impossible to objectively determine the greatest film of all time, it is possible to discuss the films that have been regarded as the greatest ever. ... Worlds Fair is any of various large expositions held since the mid-19th century. ... Nickname: Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: , Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 979 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989 Government  - Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area  - Region 162 km²  (62. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Film style and content

The film is composed of five episodes: "Men and Maggots" (Люди и черви), in which the sailors protest at having to eat rotten meat; "Drama at the Harbor" (Драма на тендре), in which the sailors mutiny and their leader is killed; "A Dead Man Calls for Justice" (Мёртвый взывает) in which the leader's corpse is mourned over by the people of Odessa; "The Odessa Staircase" (Одесская лестница), in which Tzarist soldiers massacre the Odessans; and "The Rendez-Vous with a Squadron" (Встреча с эскадрой). TV Show Reference Episode is the word usually used to refer to a part of a serial television or radio program. ... Look up maggot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A harbor or harbour (see spelling differences), or haven, is a place where ships may shelter from the weather or are stored. ... Stairs, staircase, stairway, flight of stairs are all names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps. ... A Squadron is a small unit or formation of cavalry, aircraft (including balloons), or naval vessels. ...

Eisenstein wrote the film as a revolutionary propaganda film, but also used it to test his theories of "montage". The revolutionary Soviet filmmakers of the Kuleshov school of filmmaking were experimenting with the effect of film 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 Battleship Potemkin and hatred for their cruel overlords. In the manner of most propaganda, the characterization is simple, so that the audience could clearly see with whom they should sympathize. Revolutionary propaganda means dissemination of revolutionary ideas. ... Film editing is the connecting of one or more shots to form a sequence, and the subsequent connecting of sequences to form an entire movie. ... Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov (1899 - 1970) was a Russian filmmaker known for his work on film editing and the impact it has on the viewers. ... Film editing is the connecting of one or more shots to form a sequence, and the subsequent connecting of sequences to form an entire movie. ... Emotional redirects here. ... ... Three types of mariners are seen here in the wheelhouse: a master, an able seaman, and a harbour pilot. ... Soviet Propaganda Poster during the World War II. The text reads Red Army Fighter, SAVE US! Chinese propaganda poster from during the Cultural Revolution. ...

Poster of Battleship Potemkin

Eisenstein's experiment was a mixed success; Eisenstein "was disappointed when Potemkin failed to attract masses of viewers"^[1], but the film was also released in a number of international venues, where audiences responded more 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.^{[citation needed]} The film's potential to influence political thought through emotional response was noted by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who called Potemkin "a marvellous film without equal in the cinema ... anyone who had no firm political conviction could become a Bolshevik after seeing the film."^[2] Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1500x1043, 1676 KB) Description Film poster for The Battleship Potemkin by Alexander Rodchenko (1926). ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1500x1043, 1676 KB) Description Film poster for The Battleship Potemkin by Alexander Rodchenko (1926). ... Paul Joseph Goebbels (German pronunciation: IPA: ) (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German politician and Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the National Socialist regime from 1933 to 1945. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ...

The Odessa Steps sequence

The boots of the Tsarist soldiers shown marching down the "Odessa Steps".

The most famous scene in the film is the massacre of civilians on the Odessa Steps (also known as the Primorsky or Potemkin Stairs). In this scene, the Tsar's Cossacks in their white summer tunics march down a seemingly endless flight of steps in a rhythmic, machine-like fashion, slaughtering a crowd, including a young boy, as they attempt to flee. After the boy falls, his mother picks up his body and yells at the soldiers to stop firing. They do only to shoot her minutes later. Toward the end of the sequence, the soldiers shoot a mother who is pushing a baby carriage. She falls to the ground, and as she dies she accidentally kicks the carriage away; it rolls down the steps alongside the frightened crowd. The Tsarist boots marching down the Odessa Steps from the movie The Battleship Potemkin This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... The Tsarist boots marching down the Odessa Steps from the movie The Battleship Potemkin This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... Photographs of the My Lai massacre provoked world outrage and made it an international scandal. ... ODESSA (German: Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, Organization of Former SS Members) is the name commonly given to an international Nazi network alleged to have been set up towards the end of World War II by a group of SS officers. ... Potemkin Stairs in Odessa, Ukraine. ... Tupa Inca tunic The tunic was the common masculine garment of Roman civilization. ... For transportation of a baby or toddler there are special vehicles, special car seats, and devices for carrying. ...

The baby in the carriage falling down the "Odessa Steps"

A wide shot of the massacre on the "Odessa Steps".

The scene is perhaps the best example of Eisenstein's theory on montage, and may have influenced many of Leni Riefenstahl's similar images in the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will. It has been endlessly referenced in many motion pictures, with famous homages occurring in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Brian De Palma's version of The Untouchables, and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It was also spoofed in Woody Allen's Bananas and Love and Death, Terry Gilliam's Brazil, and the ZAZ film Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult. The baby in the pram falling down the Odessa Steps from the movie The Battleship Potemkin This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... The baby in the pram falling down the Odessa Steps from the movie The Battleship Potemkin This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... Image File history File links Potemkinmarch. ... Image File history File links Potemkinmarch. ... Riefenstahl, 1931 Helene Bertha Amalie Leni Riefenstahl (August 22, 1902 – September 8, 2003) was a German film director, dancer and actress, and widely noted for her aesthetics and advances in film technique. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... Triumph of the Will (German: Triumph des Willens) is a propaganda film by the German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. ... The Godfather is a 1972 crime film based on the novel of the same name by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, with screenplay by Puzo and Coppola. ... The Untouchables is a 1987 film, directed by Brian De Palma, based on the 1959 ABC television series, which, in turn, was based on Eliot Nesss autobiographical account of his efforts to bring Al Capone to justice. ... Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is the third episode of the Star Wars film series (but the sixth film to be produced), to be released on Thursday, May 19, 2005. ... Bananas is a film written and directed by Woody Allen in 1971 and starring him and Louise Lasser. ... Love and Death is a 1975 comedy by Woody Allen. ... Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (ZAZ) is a comedy filmmaking trio consisting of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker. ...

The massacre on the steps is fictional, presumably created by Eisenstein for its dramatic venue and effect, as well as for propaganda and to demonize the Czar and the Imperial regime.^[3] It is, however, based on the fact that there were widespread demonstrations in the area, sparked off by the arrival of the Potemkin in Odessa Harbour, and both the Times of London and the resident British Consul reported that troops fired on the crowds with accompanying loss of life (the actual casualties are unrecorded). Film critic Roger Ebert writes, "That there was, in fact, no czarist 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."^[4] The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1788. ... Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films. ... Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ...

Distribution, censorship and restoration

Another poster of The Battleship Potemkin

After its premiere in Soviet Union, Potemkin was shown in the USA. It was shown in an edited form in Germany, with some scenes of extreme violence edited out by its German distributors. A written introduction by Leon Trotsky was cut from Soviet prints after he ran afoul of Josef Stalin. The film was banned in Nazi Germany, Britain, Spain, France, and other countries for its revolutionary zeal. It was even banned in the Soviet Union for a short period when the Comintern, for diplomatic reasons, ceased to promote mutiny among the navies of capitalist countries. Image File history File links Kino0. ... Image File history File links Kino0. ...   (Russian: Лeв Давидович Трóцкий, Lyev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 – August 21, 1940), born Leon Davidovich Bronstein (Лeв Давидович Бронштéйн), was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... (Russian, in full: Ио́сиф Виссарио́нович Ста́лин [Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin]; December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878[1] – March 5, 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s to his death in 1953 and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922-1953... The Comintern (Russian: Коммунистический Интернационал, Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional – Communist International, also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919, in the midst of the war communism period (1918-1921), by Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including...

Today, the film is widely available in various DVD editions. However, 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 Leon Trotsky. The previous titles, 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 in the film.

Soundtracks

The original score was composed by Edmund Meisel. A salon orchestra performed the Berlin premiere in 1926; its instrumentation was flute/piccolo, trumpet, trombone, harmonium, percussion and strings without viola. Meisel wrote the score in twelve days and nights due to the late approval from the censorship board. Due to this problem, Meisel would repeat large sections of the score, unchanged, in an effort to complete the project. Composer/conductor Mark-Andreas Schlingensiepen has reorchestrated and improved the score based on the original piano score and has adjusted it to fit the reconstructed version of the film available today.

In its commercial format (on DVD, for example) the film is usually accompanied by pieces of classical music that have been subsequently added; Dmitri Shostakovich and Nikolai Kriukov are two composers whose works have been used. In an attempt to make the film relevant for the 21st century, the Pet Shop Boys composed a new soundtrack in 2004, accompanied by the Dresden Symphonic Orchestra. Their soundtrack, released as Battleship Potemkin in 2005, was premiered in September 2004 at an open-air concert in Trafalgar Square, London. Size comparison: A 12 cm Sony DVD+RW and a 19 cm Dixon Ticonderoga pencil. ... Dmitri Shostakovich   (Russian: , Dmitrij Dmitrievič Å ostakovič) (September 25 [O.S. September 12] 1906–August 9, 1975) was a Russian composer of the Soviet period. ... Pet Shop Boys are an English synthpop/pop music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant who provides main vocals, keyboards and very occasionally guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards and occasionally on vocals. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Battleship Potemkin is a 2005 album of electronic and orchestral music written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe from Pet Shop Boys. ... Trafalgar Square viewed from the northeast corner. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

See also

• Battleship Potemkin uprising
• List of films
• List of actors
• List of directors
• List of documentaries
• Films considered the greatest ever

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Russian battleship Potemkin. ... This group of articles compose an alphabetical list of films with entries in Wikipedia (or films of significance which have references in Wikipedia even if no articles yet appear, such as Academy Award winning films, for example). ... The following are lists of actors: Overall: List of male movie actors (A-K) List of male movie actors (L-Z) List of female movie actors Theater actors: List of male theater actors List of female theater actors Television actors: List of male television actors List of female television actors... This is a list of motion picture and television directors. ... 14 Up in America (1998, Phil Joanou) 14 Up Born in the USSR (1998, Sergei Miroshnichenko) 7 Up in South Africa (1992, Angus Gibson) 21 Up (1977, Michael Apted) 28 Up (1985, Michael Apted) 35 Up (1991, Michael Apted) 42 Up (1998, Michael Apted) Age 7 in America (1991, Phil... // Note: This article does not include films that had the highest box office receipts. ...

Notes

Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 211th day of the year (212th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• The Battleship Potemkin at the Internet Movie Database
• Free download on the Internet Archive
• Battleship Potemkin. Senses of Cinema.com. Retrieved on 2006-01-22.
• Potemkin sailor monument. 2odessa.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-22. Monument in Odessa, explanation of the mutiny

Cinema of Russia Cinema of the Russian Empire (Pre 1917)  • Cinema of the Soviet Union (1917-1990)

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