Nidhi Wupadrasta

150BARCHI172
05/02/2020

THE EFFECT OF EISENSTEIN’S MONTAGE – BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN

Eisentien’s 1925 movie Battleship Potemkin upon release revolutionised the cinema industry with
its dramatic take on the Russian Battleship Potemkin, portrays the revolt between naval officers
and their crew. The movie is a masterpiece which adresses the prospect or need of the film than
focusing upon a certain characters and their personal development. In other words, the
representation of human is shown as a group or is mass driven, infused with dramatic music to
create a moving painting. The idea behind this concept is the effect of montage – juxtaposition of
two vastly different shots put together to create a dramatic rhythm in the movie. The movie starts
at a slower pace introducing the crew, officers and its setting. Upon finding the rotting meat
infesed with worms, the crew rises to take a stand and we can notice this when they shout “all of
the Russia has risen” (Eisenstien, 1925). From here on, the movie has constant movement and
tension in its frames.
Amid the tension on-board, the crew’s leader who is amongst the first to rise up is killed by the
officers. His death sequence brings upon a calm and peaceful tone into the movie, uniting the
people at the pier. This takes us to the iconic odessa steps sequence where the city folk bids
farewell to the ship crew. This scene is the epitome of montage effect. Within the peaceful setting
of people waving and offering fruit baskets, Eisenstien brings in dramatic music with the text
“Suddenly” which takes us to the first shot of shrieking women. She runs down the steps and
everyone is on the go. The frame is shot in two ways – from the top and bottom. Bottom angle
shows the people running while the top angle depicts the imperial Tsar army steadily marching,
symbolising dominance and steadiness. Eisenstein’s concept of showing human as a mass can be
seen here as he shows diferent set of people hiding in different spots but just touches upon it.
We do not have any context to who the people are and where they are running off to. Eisenstien
tries to romanticise personal experinces of this mass and depict how different reactions still link
people together facing similar issue.
Another groundbreaking aspect of this scene is the editing where he jumbles between wide shot,
close-up, far shot, close-up, close-up. This kind of montage and varying shots provide urgency to
the audience and they start feeling scared for the characters and wish for their safety. With these
dramatic cut shots, we as viewers are horrified. This kind of effect weaves the audience with the
film and we ourselves logically piece all the aspects shown in the film together. This thus forms a
crucial aspect of story telling. In contrast to this, this effects may also give rises to the question of
whether the movie has a connect or linearity to the way its shot. From a very dreadful shot comes
a calm frame where we can see people giving food and sending off the crew with happiness. This
might bring up confusion to the viewers as it takes time to understand the emotional tone in each
shot and with dramatic juxtaposed shots. But apart from that, Eisenstein successfully weaves all
this dramatic experience together and fits montage perfectly in capturing mass movements and
revolution which makes this film very vibrant and relavent in modern times as well.