Battleship Potemkin

Plot Summary

The film’s script was originally titled “The Year 1905”, in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907. It premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre. The film portrayed a real historical event – the mutiny of the warship “Prince Potemkin Tavrichesky”. S. Eisenstein used to say that his film’s action was one of a drama, but it was structured as a chronicle. For quite a long time this motion picture had been lauded as a masterpiece of the Soviet documentary cinema, although the film’s acting element is obvious. The famous Odessa Steps, the pram with a baby, the insurgent sailors on the ship, the hand-painted banner over the battleship – these and many other sequences of the legendary motion picture were later used as film citations, were included in every film-directing textbook, and generated numerous parodies.