Battleship Potemkin : Sergei Eisenstein

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Is Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin [1925] the first film I have ever watched where the narrative structure has been followed mechanically by the theatrical form of drama, [five acts structure]? Maybe it was his first step to be formalistic in film making before imposing artistic principles on firm technical elements of film.

I sometimes fall into a muddle thinking that can any medium of art carry the innate meaning and create value only based on its form without the author’s intentions and cultural stimulations. Eisenstein attempted his highest to be focused deeply on the film's formal signature but the narrative structure could not get rid of from its critical basis, the mutiny in 1905 in a Russian naval battle ship that was worked as one of the catalysts for Russian revolution in 1917. The Bengal mutiny in 1857 had also been a significant catalyst for the independence around the Indian subcontinent in 1947.

 

Though I have no wide-ranging knowledge about Marxism except Hegel’s historical dialectical materialism, I scratched a brief flow chart copying Eisenstein’s theatrical structure of the screenplay.

 

[I] Men and Maggots: The capitalist/power class don’t care about the proletariat/lower class.


[II] Drama on the Deck: The proletariat/lower class do care about the proletariat/lower class.


[II] A Dead Man Calls for Justice: A part of the proletariat/lower class’s misery mirrors the whole proletariat/lower class’s destiny; therefore, the proletariat/lower class is a strong representative class.


 [IV] The Odessa Steps : The capitalist/power class is always physically forceful, bound by intolerance, violence and imprudence. Whereas the lower class is always persistence, defiance and unison.


[V] One against all: The persistence and unison of the powerless assembles the greater strength to bring a continual harmony in the commonwealth.


Put aside the Marxist appraisal of Battleship Potemkin [1925] for a minute, come to the point of the understanding of human nature in a constructive milieu of power division. One can easily notice the structural resemblance of art with reality.


On a formalistic assessment of Battleship Potemkin [1925], I am totally amazed again by Eisenstein’s technique of composing and shooting with the crowd. Building up a parallel plot on the screen using montage and cinematic compositions are Eisenstein’s focal forte in cinema history.

 

Battleship Potemkin [1925]

Броненосец Потёмкин 

Sergei Eisenstein

Russian, USSR.

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