RUSSIA 1905-A DRESS REHEARSAL

DVD REVIEW

THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, SERGE EISENSTEIN, 1925

The Russian Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, among others, once called the aborted Revolution of 1905 that stormed over Russia in the wake of the abject defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (the one that American President Teddy Roosevelt acted as peace broker for, in case the reader is unfamiliar) the dress rehearsal for the victorious October Revolution in 1917. With that thought in mind one can see a slice of that dress rehearsal reenacted in Serge Eisenstein’s The Battleship Potemkin. Cinematically, Eisenstein demonstrates the old revolutionary adage about revolution occurring when the rulers cannot rule in the old way and the ‘people’ refuse to be ruled in the old way. That is the paradox of the 1905 Revolution and of the crew. The outrage, particularly after the events of Bloody Sunday of January of that year set the stage but the haphazardness of the actions as shown by the fate of the Potemkin showed that the times were not fully ripened for successful revolutionary action. In the end the fate of the sailors on the Potemkin demonstrated that a mutiny, for after all that was what occurred, must be linked to forces outside the ship to be successful. The vanguard role of the Kronstatdt sailors of the Baltic Fleet in 1917 under Bolshevik influence bears witness to that hard won piece of wisdom.

As I have written in a review of another Eisenstein classic, October (Ten Days That Shook The World), he was the master of montage, stage direction and reenactment of historical scenes. That skill does not fail him here. The widely acclaimed scene from the Steps of Odessa bears eloquent witness to that ability. As was the case in October it shows here in the faces of the actors used to portray the various participants. One may criticize this work as being too didactic in its portrayal of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ guys but my friends that is what this film is all about. It is a propaganda film made in the 1920’s and reflects the state of the art and the state of working class politics. The sailors were not society’s ‘beautiful’ people. And that is exactly the point. The intent of the revolution was to turn that world upside down with the forces at hands, warts and all. That Eisenstein captured that feel in a silent film that is driven by sober classical Russian music played as background is a tribute to his work. His on and off again relationship with Stalin, while not irrelevant, does not negate its grandeur.