How This Soviet Propaganda Film Changed Cinema Forever

Say the words ‘influential films’ and Citizen Kane typically comes to mind. Star Wars. Psycho. And while these films are culturally significant and technically very innovative, there is one director and one film that almost all cinema should give thanks to for one particular invention. That director is Sergei Eisenstein and the masterpiece in question is called Battleship Potemkin.

Battleship Potemkin may just be one of the most important films that you have never heard of.

A silent film filmed in 1925, Battleship Potemkin was intended as a revolutionary propaganda piece based very loosely on the mutiny of Russian sailors of the Potemkin against their authority figures. After a successful rebellion, an effort to unite the population of Odessa to fight against oppression leads to a fierce massacre of the citizens by the Cossacks.

The story is neatly divided into five equal chapters, with the fourth segment titled ‘The Odessa Steps’ portraying this infamous attack. It is this chapter that has defined the legacy of Battleship Potemkin in modern cinema for transforming the way films are shot and edited.

Montage Theory and The Odessa Steps

Suddenly”. The music quickens. The white-dressed Cossacks descend down the steps in formations, killing…