Battleship Potemkin

Battleship Potemkin (Rus., Броненосец « Потёмкин », Bronyenosyets "Potyomkin") is a 1925 Soviet silent film, perhaps the most famous one directed by Sergei Eisenstein, who also directed Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible. It was also his experiment to test the emotional power of montages.

In essence, it is a propaganda film that dramatizes the 1905 mutiny on the eponymous ship. Our brave heroes, tired of eating rotten meat, revolt against their superiors. The people of Odessa join them in launching a peaceful protest, which quickly turns violent.

Its best known sequence is one where a baby carriage rolls down the Odessa steps. It has been homaged and parodied numerous times since then.

Although most of the events in the movie are Based on a Great Big Lie, the film itself is considered a masterpiece of direction and cinematography, and is often ranked among the greatest films of all time.

The film is in public domain. You can watch it on this very page.


 * Baby Carriage: The earliest, most famous use of one in cinema, and thus the Trope Maker.
 * Based on a Great Big Lie: That massacre? Never happened. It was just made up so that the revolution would look more justified.
 * It still might have had some basis in facts -- there were reports of the demonstrations being put down by the troops on that day, so while the massacre as shown in the film most probably indeed never happened, this scene might be an exaggeration of some real event.
 * Quoted for truth. But the actual "massacre?" The Guards fired warning shots over the heads of the crowd in front of them... and hit a few people BEHIND the crowd in front of them.
 * However, the Czarist troops did later prevent people from leaving the port after several buildings caught fire, indirectly leading to dozens of deaths. The Black Sea Mutiny was complicated. A more straight forward example would be when the Potemkin fired on Odessa. In the movie, they destroy the Czarist headquarters, in reality someone in fire control disagreed with the mutiny and gave them the wrong coordinates causing them to level a few blocks of tenements full of innocent people instead.
 * The scene where some of the rebellious sailors are rounded up to be shot and a tarp is pulled over them did happen--but there was no tarp. Interestingly, one of the sailors who was in that group saw the film and, in praising it, said "I was under that tarp!" (even though there never was one). Chalk it up to the hypnotic effect of this film.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Almost the entire crew was about to get executed for not liking the soup the ship served (or the meat being full of maggots).
 * The discipline on Imperial Navy ships was notoriously strict, and the ship's XO Ippolit Giliarovsky was well known as a total dick and brickheaded martinet. So the complaining crew would've most probably be court-martialed for insubordination at the very least. Ironically, the Red Navy carried on most of the old Czarist discipline methods.
 * Easy Evangelism: The protagonists manage to instantly turn legions of people to their side as soon as they begin to speak.
 * Epic Movie: Despite being only 75 minutes long, it IS.
 * Eternal Engine: The ship's powerplant.
 * Historical Villain Upgrade
 * Historical Hero Upgrade as well: The sailor shown in the movie as the mutiny leader in fact wasn't - he was just some dude who got caught in the fighting and was killed. The real leader of the mutiny went to Romania (and further to Europe) with the ship, finally settling in Dublin and opening a fish-and-chips shop.
 * Infant Immortality: Averted, oh so hard. If you've seen the movie, you know the scene.
 * Kick the Dog: All of the tsarist massacre, but especially shooting an unarmed mother holding her dead son.
 * Montages
 * Mook Face Turn: The mutineers manage to convince the government's battleships not only to not fire on them, but to join them in escaping Russia.
 * The Mutiny
 * The Neidermeyer: Ship's XO, Lieutenant Ippolit Giliarovsky, and particularly cocky and bullyish one. One of the aspects in this film where film corresponds well to reality.
 * No Ending: Eisenstein doesn't tell us what eventually happened to the ship; the mutineers sailed to Romania and handed the ship over to the Romanian government.
 * Obviously Evil: One of the characters even twirls his mustache.
 * Popcultural Osmosis: The baby carriage scene.
 * Real Life fact: Joseph Goebbels said that this film was the greatest propaganda film ever, and that "if a man with no strong political motivations saw it, he might well walk out a convicted Bolshevik". Which is pretty awesome, coming from Hitler's Minister of Propaganda....
 * Repeat Cut
 * Sinister Minister: That Moses-looking guy on the ship is an exaggerated version of an Russian Orthodox priest and is meant to show how religion is used to support the status quo and reinforce authority. While the film didn't focus on it, an obligatory anti-religion comment would be unavoidable.
 * Splash of Color: While not Deliberately Monochrome because color photography simply was not available, the Potemkin flew a red flag that was colored in frame by frame.
 * Stock Shout Out: The staircase sequence has been referenced in so many films, including Star Wars, that it would be redundant to list them all. If there is a scene with a group of soldiers marching in unison up or down a staircase, it's safe to assume that's what it is.
 * In Italy, if you mention this movie, the answer you'll get is "Fantozzi".
 * Vehicle Title
 * World Half Full: The film ends far more optimistically than its Real Life counterpart.