Battleship Potemkin (The Ultimate Edition) (2pc) (Full B&W)

I've often noted Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin as one of the great films of the twenthieth century. I had no idea how extraordinary the photography is. The same must be said of the restoration. The film is historically important. It is also a remarkable work of creativity and imagination.

This is the best edition of this classic film. The use of the original score and the beautiful, clean print make it a pleasure to watch. The reintroduction of the original release's hand painted frames of the red flag into the otherwise black and white film has an emotional power that even my high school history students felt and commented on later. They were surprised at the fact that they, who are accustomed to color and hi-def,felt the impact of the brief punch of color. And of course, the baby carriage going down the Odessa Steps continues to demonstrate why it remains the most famous sequence in film.

Sergei Eisenstein's BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN portrays an early event of the people's uprising of 1905-- an incident aboard a Tsarist battleship that turned deadly.

The ship's crew hung out several rotting sides of beef that had just been delivered as a way of protest, saying they wouldn't eat this wormy stuff anymore. When the medical officer examined the meat, he saw it was crawling but still said: "Those aren't worms... they're only maggots. Just wash them off with brine; the meat's perfectly fine."

The foul meat was prepared as soup, but none of the enlisted men would eat it. Soon after, everyone was assembled on deck. The second officer in command said: "All who ate soup, step forward." Only ship's officers did so. The angry 2nd officer said he'd hang everyone else from the yardarm. Then he called for a firing squad of Marines. A tarpaulin was thrown over a large group of sailors standing on the quarterdeck, in preparation for execution.

One sailor who was further back rallied the other men. He stood on a bulkhead, pleading with the Marines to not kill their brothers. They lowered their weapons. This is when things got chaotic-- it was mutiny on a grand scale. During the struggle, the man who ignited the violence with his plea of mercy was shot dead by the 2nd officer, who was immediately tossed overboard, along with the captain, medical officer and 4 others.

The body of the hero of the uprising was laid in a tent on the Odessa docks, with a sign on his chest saying: "Killed because of soup." Crowds came to visit this makeshift shrine, and a protest was organized, that is, until dismounted cossacks arrived and began firing indiscriminately on the people. Women and children were shot down. It was a slaughter.

Later, civilians resupplied the Potemkin with food, and they cast off, with two fleets in close pursuit. You'll have to see the movie to find out the boat and crew's fate.

The VHS tape of BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (issued by KULTUR) is from the 1976 Soviet restoration. Video quality is superb and projection speed accurate; soundtrack is by Shostakovich. Manufacturer's running time is listed as 74 minutes.

I have this on an old VHS Tape. This is miles ahead and well worth the wait. A must have for silent film fans.

I just watched the "History of Cinema" edition with the documentary on Eisenstein. It was quite watchable and moving.

It drives me crazy the way films get chopped up and then marketed with no details about the mutilation and it takes lot of work to even hope to know what you should buy. There otta be a law. Truth in advertising, proper labeling or something like that. I could not figure out before buying if this Potemkin is really the best restored etc. or not.

But I will say to help those who get as confused about versions as I do that this one was visually clear enough and the effects worked without distraction and the overall effect was still quite moving. The titles say music by Shastakovich. It is a bit choppy but I felt it added a lot to the power of the film. It is said that no sound track is authentic, because it was originally accompanied by piano. But in any event I liked this one a lot. I have seen and heard a lot more "scratchy" silent prints.

The film as a work of art? Of course it is great and can be still quite moving as has surely been said ad infinitum.

The print of the "rare documentary" bonus is a bit faded and antique, but the narrator can be heard clearly and it works for me. I learned a lot and am glad to have this artifact from the past.

So many Amazon reviewers get painfully persnickity about technical details or their asthetic judgments but don't even think to tell us which edition they are talking about!!! Please, folks if there are several editions make a small effort to tell us exactly which one you are writing about!!! Please notice that the Amazon computers don't always keep the reviews together with the exact edition you think you are referring to.