With only seeing a small section of the film, I personally don’t see the attraction. Considering that Battleship Potemkin is twice champion of the title ‘greatest film ever made’, I was greatly disappointed with its content.
The film was initially meant to be all about the Russian Revolution in 1905, and the Potemkin scenario took up only a small section of the script. Due to bad weather in Leningrad, the filming was delayed and as days passed, the deadline drew nearer, so they were advised to go south, to Odessa and work on a different section of the film until the weather had cleared up. However, in being there, Eisenstein made major alterations to the script to which eventually became ‘Battleship Potemkin’.
In all fairness to the production, taking the last minute change to the script into consideration, the outcome was adequate; however, it is far from giving Charlie Chaplin a run for his money. The likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin are what we would call, legends, but I’m afraid ‘Battleship Potemkin’ is just unheard of. Sorry Eisenstein!
So is Battleship Potemkin dramatic? The answer to that would be yes. In watching a small section of the film, I saw what came across to be a flock of over-dramatic fear-struck people running around frantically from some very robotic looking soldiers. Dramatic…? Yes. Realistic…? No. Nevertheless, I had a few laughs. The film comes across to be more of a comedy rather than a serious drama. In my opinion, it would be better off staged in the local theatre as a pantomime.
The over-dramatic content showed a more comical portrayal of fear, not the kind that the audience today, could take seriously. However, I do take into account the fact that Battleship Potemkin was filmed when technologies weren’t as advanced, and as it was a silent film, the facial expressions will have had to have been more exaggerated. This may have been quite effective back in the day.
In the section of the film that I viewed, parts of the scene were some-what fictitious. Here again, it is not a film to be taken seriously. Realistically, a pram carrying a child cannot roll down masses of steps unaided, without tipping over at some point on the way down.
I am not completely critical of the film as I did find that the lighting and colour worked well. After all, the black and white images lowered the tone which gave less detail to the over dramatized expressions on the actors faces.
The fact of the matter is; the producers and makers of this film would have no room to be boastful here in the 21st century as film critics would have a field day marking out Battleship Potemkin’s weak points.
I think that it is fair to say that Battleship Potemkin is no longer the highly rated masterpiece that it once was.
