Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786302054279
Format: NTSC
ISBN: 6302054273
Label: Republic Pictures
Manufacturer: Republic Pictures
Publisher: Republic Pictures
Release Date: 1994-09-01
Studio: Republic Pictures

Sergei Eisenstein's revolutionary sophomore feature has so long stood as a textbook example of montage editing that many have forgotten what an invigoratingly cinematic experience he created. A 20th-anniversary tribute to the 1905 revolution, Eisenstein portrays the revolt in microcosm with a dramatization of the real-life mutiny aboard the battleship Potemkin. The story tells a familiar party-line message of the oppressed working class (in this case the enlisted sailors) banding 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) Odessa Steps massacre. Eisenstein edits carefully orchestrated motions within the frame to create broad swaths of movement, shots of varying length to build the rhythm, close-ups for perspective and shock effect, and symbolic imagery for commentary, all to create one of the most cinematically exciting sequences in film history. Eisenstein's film is Marxist propaganda to be sure, but the power of this masterpiece lies not in its preaching but its poetry. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great film, bad music
Comment: This was the first silent russian film I'd ever seen, and I like very much! It contains a lot of elements I enjoy in silent films: great acting, descriptive captions, engaging plot. This version even includes the Russian Captions, with the english description below! The only problem I have with this film is the music track on this DVD is much too neutral for Russian Revolutionists. The score does not fit with what is happening in the film. Otherwise, it is fine and a wonderful film!

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Photography
Comment: I've often noted Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin as one of the great films of the twenthieth century. I had no idea how extraordinary the photography is. The same must be said of the restoration. The film is historically important. It is also a remarkable work of creativity and imagination.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: potemkin revitalized
Comment: This is the best edition of this classic film. The use of the original score and the beautiful, clean print make it a pleasure to watch. The reintroduction of the original release's hand painted frames of the red flag into the otherwise black and white film has an emotional power that even my high school history students felt and commented on later. They were surprised at the fact that they, who are accustomed to color and hi-def,felt the impact of the brief punch of color. And of course, the baby carriage going down the Odessa Steps continues to demonstrate why it remains the most famous sequence in film.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: KULTUR VHS version is excellent!
Comment: Sergei Eisenstein's BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN portrays an early event of the people's uprising of 1905-- an incident aboard a Tsarist battleship that turned deadly.

The ship's crew hung out several rotting sides of beef that had just been delivered as a way of protest, saying they wouldn't eat this wormy stuff anymore. When the medical officer examined the meat, he saw it was crawling but still said: "Those aren't worms... they're only maggots. Just wash them off with brine; the meat's perfectly fine."

The foul meat was prepared as soup, but none of the enlisted men would eat it. Soon after, everyone was assembled on deck. The second officer in command said: "All who ate soup, step forward." Only ship's officers did so. The angry 2nd officer said he'd hang everyone else from the yardarm. Then he called for a firing squad of Marines. A tarpaulin was thrown over a large group of sailors standing on the quarterdeck, in preparation for execution.

One sailor who was further back rallied the other men. He stood on a bulkhead, pleading with the Marines to not kill their brothers. They lowered their weapons. This is when things got chaotic-- it was mutiny on a grand scale. During the struggle, the man who ignited the violence with his plea of mercy was shot dead by the 2nd officer, who was immediately tossed overboard, along with the captain, medical officer and 4 others.

The body of the hero of the uprising was laid in a tent on the Odessa docks, with a sign on his chest saying: "Killed because of soup." Crowds came to visit this makeshift shrine, and a protest was organized, that is, until dismounted cossacks arrived and began firing indiscriminately on the people. Women and children were shot down. It was a slaughter.

Later, civilians resupplied the Potemkin with food, and they cast off, with two fleets in close pursuit. You'll have to see the movie to find out the boat and crew's fate.

The VHS tape of BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (issued by KULTUR) is from the 1976 Soviet restoration. Video quality is superb and projection speed accurate; soundtrack is by Shostakovich. Manufacturer's running time is listed as 74 minutes.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Restoration
Comment: I have this on an old VHS Tape. This is miles ahead and well worth the wait. A must have for silent film fans.

---