The Battleship Potemkin

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The Battleship Potemkin - 3/4/2008 5:56:56 PM

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Solid but overrated - 3/4/2008 5:56:56 PM

jamdodge1

Posts: 641
Joined: 19/3/2006
From: Here to Eternity

Eisenstein's use of montage is pioneering but its hard to love a film with no relatable characters or emotion. As an effective silent with a truly great central 'action' scene (the Odessa steps sequence) it works but I couldn't get invlolved - even at 76 minutes I was getting a little fidgetty.

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- 26/4/2011 3:26:27 PM

Bill Clay

Posts: 11
Joined: 21/5/2009

I saw this a few years back accompanied by a full orchestra, quite impressive.

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- 29/4/2011 12:52:27 PM

ARmy2510

Posts: 107
Joined: 21/4/2008

For Christ sake, it was 1925! Not quite impressive?...

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Battleship Potemkin - 7/12/2011 4:06:27 PM

Whistler

Posts: 2279
Joined: 22/11/2006

I'd say films like Battleship Potemkin are important films, rather than particularly good ones - in my opinion, of course. I personally find it quite hard to engage with silent film. I feel a bit disconnected not be able to hear the characters talk, not hearing the emotion in someone�s voice. Even having no sound effects makes it harder for me to believe what I'm seeing. (Having said that, however, I do enjoy Nosferatu). I watched BP because it was an innovative film that explored various techniques that directors are still copying today, like which camera angles work and which don't, when a cut should occur to drive the plot forwards etc. The story itself I didn�t find particularly engaging, and to be completely honest, I became a little bored. This doesn�t mean I don�t appreciate classic cinema, it just means that I don�t want to pretend to think it�s the greatest film ever made in order to sound �artistic� (and I'm also not accusing anybody who really does think this of pretending). I�m definitely NOT saying it�s a bad film (I've given it 4 stars), and actually, for its time, it�s really quite astonishing. But I do think, in regards to a comment I've seen of the film, that many films that have been made since are far superior, and given the choice to watch either this or The Godfather, I'd choose the latter every time. However, I appreciate that this effectively gave 'birth' to films like The Godfather, and that they may not have been as great without the likes of BP. I think it's important that people are aware of films like Battleship Potemkin and the influence they've had on modern cinema.

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