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20 out of 25 people found the following comment useful:-
A gripping story told with style and passion as well as a 'must see' piece of cinema history, 19 September 2004
Author:
bob the moo from Birmingham, UK
With workers striking in Russia, the crew of the battleship Potemkin
feel a certain kinship for the plight of their brothers. When they are
served rotting, maggot infested meat some of the crew object, only to
find themselves singled out and placed in front of a firing squad. With
the marines seconds away from firing the deadly shots, ordinary seaman
Grigory Vakulinchuk steps into the breach and intervenes to save the
men by appealing to the firing squad to ignore their orders. When the
officers take their revenge and kill Vakulinchuk, all are bonded
together in the struggle; a bond that reaches to the city of Odessa
where the rebellion grows, leading to a bloody and historic series of
events.
It is hard to imagine that anybody who has seen quite a few films in
the past few decades would be unaware of this film, but it is perhaps
understandable that fewer have had the opportunity to actually sit down
and watch. I had never seen this film before but had seen countless
references to it in other films and therefore considering it an
important film to at least see once. The story is based on real events
and this only serves to make it more interesting but even without this
context it is still an engaging story. The story doesn't have much in
the way of characters but it still brings out the brutality and
injustice of events and it is in this that it hooked me � surprisingly
violent (implied more than modern gore) it demonising the actions and
shows innocents falling at all sides in key scenes. The version I saw
apparently had the original score (I'm not being snobby � modern
rescores could be better for all I know) and I felt it worked very well
to match and improve the film's mood; dramatic, gentle or exciting, it
all works very well.
The feel of the film was a surprise to me because it stood up very well
viewed with my modern eyes. At one or two points the model work was
very clearly model work but mostly the film is technically impressive.
The masses of extras, use of ships and cities and just the way it
captures such well organised chaos are all very impressive and would be
even done today. What is more impressive with time though is how the
film has a very strong and very clean style to it � it is not as gritty
and flat as many silent films of the period that I have seen; instead
it is very crisp and feels very, very professional. Of course watching
it in 2004 gives me the benefit of hindsight where I can look back over
many films that have referenced the images or directors who have
mentioned the film in interviews; but even without this 20:20 vision it
is still possible to see how well done the film is and to note how
memorable much of it is � the steps and the firing squad scenes are two
very impressive moments that are very memorable. The only real thing
that might bug modern audiences is the acting; it isn't bad but silent
acting is very different from acting with sound. Here the actors all
over act and rely on their bodies to do much of their delivery � word
cards just don't do the emotional job so they have to make extra effort
to deliver this.
Overall this is a classic film that has influenced many modern
directors. The story is engaging and well worth hearing; the directing
is crisp and professional, producing many scenes that linger in the
memory; the music works to deliver the emotional edge that modern
audiences would normally rely on acting and dialogue to deliver and the
whole film is over all too quickly! An essential piece of cinema for
those that claim to love the media but also a cracking good film in its
own right.
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