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Battleship Potemkin (The Ultimate Edition) (2pc) (Full B&W) Posters
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Rating:  -
I just watched the "History of Cinema" edition with the documentary on Eisenstein. It was quite watchable and moving.
It drives me crazy the way films get chopped up and then marketed with no details about the mutilation and it takes lot of work to even hope to know what you should buy. There otta be a law. Truth in advertising, proper labeling or something like that. I could not figure out before buying if this Potemkin is really the best restored etc. or not.
But I will say to help those who get as confused about versions as I do that this one was visually clear enough and the effects worked without distraction and the overall effect was still quite moving. The titles say music by Shastakovich. It is a bit choppy but I felt it added a lot to the power of the film. It is said that no sound track is authentic, because it was originally accompanied by piano. But in any event I liked this one a lot. I have seen and heard a lot more "scratchy" silent prints.
The film as a work of art? Of course it is great and can be still quite moving as has surely been said ad infinitum.
The print of the "rare documentary" bonus is a bit faded and antique, but the narrator can be heard clearly and it works for me. I learned a lot and am glad to have this artifact from the past.
So many Amazon reviewers get painfully persnickity about technical details or their asthetic judgments but don't even think to tell us which edition they are talking about!!! Please, folks if there are several editions make a small effort to tell us exactly which one you are writing about!!! Please notice that the Amazon computers don't always keep the reviews together with the exact edition you think you are referring to.
Rating:  -
Serge Eisenstein is heralded as a master of the silent film. His use of the montage has become a trademark and is common piece of modern cinema. In this his most famous work, the montage is used to great effect in several scenes, namely the famous Odessa Steps sequence. Battleship Potemkin is the story of disgruntled soldiers on a battleship who, when forced to eat rotten meat and obey ruthless officers, decide to mutiny. Their leader is killed in the process and becomes a martyr for the cause of the oppressed individual who can, when joined by others, can rise against tyranny. A highly political film, the issues addressed here foreshadow coming events in the history of the Soviet Union.
Newcomers to this film might be put off by its reputation. Do not assume that just because it is considered to be artistic and important that it is boring. Part of its importance is the editing, but that also makes the movie tense and emotional. The cast is mainly men, but their strength does not make them any less relatable. The Odessa Steps scene is a whirlwind of emotion and will leave the viewer shocked. The overall message of the film speaks volumes about society, even if time has shown that the suggested solution of communism does not work. A timeless masterpiece, Battleship Potemkin will not disappoint.
Rating: -
Most of you reading this will know what an important film Potemkin is and probably have another DVD or VHS version in your collection already. The restored, Ultimate Edition is worth the extra cost to replace whatever previous version you own. I had the Image DVD before and would have rated it about a C grade. The Ultimate Edition is probably a B or B+ and the music is wonderful. New better translations too. Never again will my film students laugh during the Odessa Steps sequence when the woman says "Don't shoot - my child is sick!"
I don't get a second version of a film just because of a slight improvement, but this is worth the upgrade. And if you don't already have another, this is the version to get.
Rating:  -
Sergei Eisenstein's landmark film, from 1925, alerted western audiences that something important was happening in the Soviet Union in terms of filmmaking (Lenin: "Cinema to us is the most important art"). The film itself deals with the 1905 uprising of the battleship of the title, how the crew of the ship rebelled against the czarist officers when they were asked to eat rotten meat, how after the mutiny the ship landed in the port of Odessa in the Black Sea (receiving the support of the population), and how the rebellion was suppressed by troops loyal to the regime. To achieve its effects, he film used the then new technique of rapid cutting. Elected in a film congress in 1959 as the best film ever, and still considered a classic, it hasn't aged that well. There is the famous scene of the repression at the Odessa steps, which have been repeated so many times in TV, that are famous to even those who hadn't seen the movie. Whatever its failings, every film buff should see this movie at least once. Personally, I think Eisenstein made better movies, for example, "Alexander Nevsky" or "Ivan the Terrible". It is unfortunately true that cinema ages much faster than other forms of art. For example, one can read a novel written in the 1930s without much problems, yet most movies made in that decade look terribly dated now (I think many movies made in the 60s and 70s look dated). This has to do with cinema being an art supported by technology, and technology can get outdated quickly, of course. But there must be something else that I'm not able to define that make movies age so quickly.
Rating: -
It was a strange, surreal experience for me to watch this, as I'm very new to silent cinema having not seen any before, Lotte Reiniger's "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (1926) and FW Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1922) aside. It took a while to get used to things like what, in my opion at least, were overexagerrated gestures (since there's no dialogue, theres no way of doing a one-liner) and the Russian title cards, but its' very relevant to many cinematic techniques. You have to watch the film very carefully.
Sergei Eisenstien tells the story of a real-life mutiny aboard the battleship Potemkin, with oppressed working class (in this case the enlisted sailors) who refuse to eat the horrible maggot-infested meat they are given. They band together to overthrow their oppressors (the ship's officers), led by proto-revolutionary Vakulinchuk. When he dies in the shipboard struggle, the crew lays his body to rest on the pier, a moody, moving scene where the citizens of Odessa slowly emerge from the fog to pay their respects. As the crowd grows Eisenstein turns the tenor from mourning a fallen comrade to celebrating the collective achievement. The government responds by sending soldiers and ships to deal with the mutinous crew and the supportive townspeople, which climaxes in the justly famous (and often imitated and parodied), for example in The Untouchables (1991) - Odessa Steps massacre.
As I said its not really my "type" of film, but I'm glad I saw it all the same. Reccommended for those interested in cinema.
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