Why Battleship Potemkin is considered a classic

 

 

Potemkin is a silent film based on the poor treatment of Russian sailors. There are several classic moments in this movie that are harsh and realistic. One of these moments is when all of the soldiers attack Odessa, and no matter what was in their way, they killed everyone. This was a very realistic moment. I believe the hardest thing to watch during this sequence was when the baby in the cradle fall down all those steps. Despite being hard to watch, however, the realistic manner of the scene and of the movie is one of the reasons it’s labeled as a classic.

 

 

There were also parts of the movie on the ship that felt very real. The mutiny of the crew, the disgusting food they had to eat, and even the officers. The officers were heavily stereotyped to make the scenes on the ship feel realistic. The costumes and the ship itself makes the viewer believe that they are actual there, even with all of the captions being displayed throughout the movie. It’s almost like the viewer is part of the uprising.

The Potemkin crew look disgustedly at their rotten meat.

 

The cast and the extras in “Potemkin” must have been really difficult to get. There were so many people in this movie, the majority of them being in the Odessa scenes or as part of the crew. Give a lot of credit to Sergei Eisenstein, the director or “Potemkin” for finding all these extras, getting the right cast, and above all, making this film a true classic.