Battleship Potemkin (1925)

A 5 act film, featuring one of the greatest scenes in film history, book-ended by four forgettable scenes.

Battleship Potemkin is often lauded as one of the greats in silent cinema and still features heavily on critics lists like Sight and Sound, it is with these lofty expectations that I went into this film.

The first three acts tell the story of the sailor mutiny on board the Potemkin ship, the story is well told although a lot of the action is extremely poorly executed, fake-looking and completely threw me out of the suspension of disbelief. It looked like a group of men pratting around on a set, not a mutinous crew at sea who've finally reached breaking point.

Perhaps not helped by the poor execution and set up of the first three acts, but similarly the last act held no significance, I was not invested in this storyline at all.

The film lives and is immortalized by the fourth act, titled the Odessa Steps, which visually is just stunning. A group of soldiers march and open fire on a staircase filled with unarmed civilians who begin to flee in terror, within this we are treated to several short-stories of individual civilians including a baby in a carriage (if you've seen The Untouchables, you'll know this sequence, it is directly paid homage to) and a screaming old lady who is ultimately shot in the face (see above image). Visually this scene is breathtaking, the tension and drama built is pitch perfect, I cannot get behind this film as being one of the greatest in cinema history however I can cannonize this as being one of the greatest scenes in cinema history.

BEST SCENE: Absolutely no question here, the steps at Odessa scene is amazing and for me, the only reason why Battleship Potemkin sustains itself to this day.

BEST CHARACTER: N/A

BEST QUOTE: "Comrades! The time has come when we too must speak out. Why wait? All of Russia has risen! Are we to be the last?"

RATING:  ★★★ - it's difficult to rate a film where I consider the majority of the film an unmemorable 2 to 2 1/2 stars at best and one scene a solid 5 stars but considering that scene is a fair chunk of the runtime, I've landed on 3 stars for this one, with the cavaet that this may be one of the most technically perfect 3 star films theres ever been - there has been a lot written about the steps at Odessa scene and for it to live up to those expectations speaks to the power of it.

MOVIES WATCHED: 8
MOVIES REMAINING: 993