Battleship Potemkin (1925)

A film that is considered today as one of the greatest films ever made and has had massive influence on cinema as a whole; influencing prolific directors like Coppola and De Palma. Battleship Potemkin is a massive movie, possibly more ambitious than Birth of a Nation? It included Filming on water, huge numbers of extras, and a literal squadron of battleships.

There are some striking visuals (every film nerd loves the scene on the stairs), and boy oh boy did Sergei like his "montage." The montage being an editing technique pioneered in this film that was a simple shot of someone, reverse shot to what theyre looking at, and then a reaction shot back on number 1 again. This technique is supposed to provide more emotion.

I definitely think the Russian editing style threw me off, I just couldn't get into its rhythm. I always felt like the editing pace was either moving too quick or too slow. The step scene was shocking and visceral, the last chapter was suspenseful, but I don't know it just didnt grip me. Also another thing is that I have no real connection to the Russian revolution, so its hard for me to identify with these people.

This leads well into the fact this film is Revolutionary propaganda; and is hailed as one of the finest propaganda films ever made. Joseph Goebbels took note of the film and used it as inspiration for his future work in Nazi propaganda.

Though Sergei did do a good job of making the reason behind the Bolsheviks fury timeless. I think I'm just too engrained in classical American editing to have gotten really into this one.