Battleship Potemkin

Lore & Background

In June 1905 the Potemkin, a battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet is anchored off the island of Tendra. Onboard, two sailors, Matyushenko and Vakulinchuk, discuss the need for the crew to support the ongoing revolution in Russia. After their watch, when the off-duty sailors are asleep, an officer inspects the quarters. He stumbles and takes out his aggression on a sleeping sailor.

The ruckus awakens Vakulinchuk, who gives a rousing speech linking the revolution back home to the sailors' own poor conditions, especially their maggot-infested rations. The captain orders the ship's doctor Smirnov to inspect the meat. Rather than maggots, Smirnov says they are insects that can be washed off before cooking. Though the sailors continue to complain, the doctor declares the meat edible and ends the discussion.

Senior officer Giliarovsky forces the sailors still looking over the rotten meat to leave the area, and the cook begins to prepare borscht, although he too questions the quality of the meat. The crew refuses to eat the borscht, instead choosing bread, water, and canned goods. While cleaning dishes, one of the sailors sees an inscription on a plate which reads "give us this day our daily bread". After considering its meaning, he smashes the plate.

All those who refuse the meat are judged guilty of insubordination and are brought to the fore-deck where they receive religious last rites. The sailors are obliged to kneel and a canvas cover is thrown over them as a firing squad marches onto the deck. The First Officer gives the order to fire, but in response to Vakulinchuk's pleas the firing squad lower their rifles and the uprising begins. The sailors overwhelm the outnumbered officers and take control of the Potemkin.

The officers are thrown overboard, the ship's priest is dragged out of hiding, and finally the doctor is thrown into the ocean as "food for the worms". The mutiny is successful but Vakulinchuk is killed. The Potemkin arrives at Odessa, where Vakulinchuk's body is taken ashore and displayed publicly by his companions in a tent with a sign on his chest that says "For a spoonful of borscht". The citizens of Odessa, saddened yet empowered by Vakulinchuk's sacrifice, are soon whipped into a frenzy against the Tsar and his government by sympathizers.

Early International Acclaim

In the early 1950s, Battleship Potemkin (1925) secured a remarkable position in the international film canon. At the Festival Mondial du Film et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, a gathering that brought together sixty-three film professionals from around the globe—predominantly directors—the 1925 film was voted the single greatest work of the preceding half-century.

It claimed the top spot with thirty-two votes, a commanding lead that reflected the deep respect the film commanded among those shaping cinema's artistic direction. This recognition arrived at a pivotal moment, just as the British magazine Sight and Sound was preparing to launch its now-legendary decadal critics' poll in 1952. The fact that a film from the silent era, made more than two decades earlier, could still dominate a professional consensus speaks to the enduring power of its construction and its resonance with the filmmakers who would go on to define the medium's next chapters.

Reader's Guide

On the 20th anniversary of the first Russian revolution, the commemorative commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to stage a number of performances dedicated to the revolutionary events of 1905. As part of the celebrations, it was suggested that a "... grand film [be] shown in a special program, with an oratory introduction, musical (solo and orchestral) and a dramatic accompaniment based on a specially written text". Nina Agadzhanova was asked to write the script and direction of the picture was assigned to 27-year-old Sergei Eisenstein. In the original script, the film was to highlight a number of episodes from the 1905 revolution: the Russo-Japanese War, Armenian–Tatar massacres of 1905–1906, revolutionary events in St. Petersburg and the Moscow uprising.

Filming was to be conducted in a number of cities within the USSR. Eisenstein hired many non-professional actors for the film; he sought people of specific types instead of famous stars. Shooting began on 31 March 1925. Eisenstein began filming in Leningrad and had time to shoot the railway strike episode, horsecar, city at night and the strike crackdown on Sadovaya Street.

Further shooting was prevented by deteriorating weather, with fog setting in. At the same time, the director faced tight time constraints: the film needed to be finished by the end of the year, although the script was approved only on 4 June. Eisenstein decided to give up the original script consisting of eight episodes, to focus on just one, the uprising on the battleship Potemkin, which involved just a few pages (41 frames) from Agadzhanova's script. Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov essentially recycled and extended the script.

In addition, during the progress of making the film, some episodes were added that had existed neither in Agadzhanova's script nor in Eisenstein's scenic sketches, such as the storm scene with which the film begins. As a result, the content of the film was far removed from Agadzhanova's original script. The film was shot in Odessa, at that time a center of film production where it was possible to find a suitable warship for shooting. The first screening of the film took place on 21 December 1925 at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the anniversary of the 1905 revolution at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Did You Know?

• In 1925, after the film's negatives were sold to Germany, director Phil Jutzi reedited the film, moving the attempted execution of sailors from the beginning to the end.
• The words of Leon Trotsky in the prologue were replaced with a quote from Lenin.