Battleship Potyomkin, a silent film from the early days of the Soviet Union. Made as a propaganda piece, it lives up to that intention but is still a great work of art. The director Eisenstein was only in his late twenties and went on to have a short but successful career.
I watched the film on Youtube with English subtitles. This was thanks to the German Film Library Museum of Film and Television. It is a (very) dramatised version of the mutiny on board the battleship Potyomkin. The named characters were all real people from that event, part of the 1905 Russian Revolution. Sweeping reforms were won but many, including Lenin himself, later saw it as a rehearsal for the revolutions of 1917.
Whilst watching it is a rewarding experience, it does have a few problems. The film can be repetitive at times and the propagandistic intent simplifies things. One thing to note is that the film has a few splashes of colour towards the end - a red flag that was flown on the ship.
A couple of final notes. The Potyomkin itself did not survive until 1925, it was scrapped a few years before. As for the real mutineers, the last survivor died in 1987 at either 102 or 104. If he had lived a few more years, he would have outlived the Soviet Union.
Many silent films are now sadly lost to time, but we should be thankful that this one survived. It is propaganda, but it is also a classic film.
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