Josh Weckesser
Wednesday, January 26, 2000
Intro to Film
Potemkin Study Guide
1. For me, the most moving scene was the mutiny. The idea of placing a tarp over the
head of shipmates to mask their identity and then shoot them is quite a disturbing
idea. The fury of the officer when they refused to fire on helpless men was amazing.
Vakulinchkuk’s line, “Who are you firing upon?” Was excellent at making the
audience understand why the mutiny took place and the sailor’s emotions.
2. The woman whose son was shot early on symbolizes the cruelty of the Czars’
Cossacks the most. This woman is trying to flee from advancing soldiers, she is
unarmed as well as her son. Her son is struck down with a bullet and she returns to
pick him up. The image of a lone woman holding her dead son as ranks of soldiers
advance is quite a haunting one. She then pleads with them to stop as her boy is ill,
but the soldiers are deaf to her call and after they shoot her they march over both
bodies.
3. The best example of montage I found in the film was as they night turned to day
before Potemkin would have to fight the entire fleet. The cutting from crew members
on Potemkin to crew members of other ships to a shot of the sea then of Potemkin and
then a group of fleet vessels builds tension and makes the audience wonder what will
happen.
4. The fact that Potemkin is a silent film gives greater emphasis to the visuals, most
importantly the facial and body structure of the characters. In Potemkin Eisenstein
used non-professional people to play the parts based on typage. The sailors were all
large, robust men. They had the look of jolly, hard working, easygoing men. The
officers were tall and slender; they seemed to have long faces and long noses, both of
which gives to the look of a cold-blooded individual. The obvious contrast is present
in all characters though out the movie and is excellently done.
5. The scene of the mother carrying her dead child up the steps toward the Cossacks is
such a stimulating experience due to the extreme emotional response that it creates in
the audience. The bond between mother and child, especially between mother and
son, is one that is recognized the world over. To have that bond broken in an instant
is shocking in itself. Then the mother, stricken with grief, picks up her son and
carries him toward the Cossacks, telling them to halt, believing he is still alive. This
is enough to break the heart of most people, yet these Cossacks unfeelingly shoot her
down and then walk over her body. The feeling of impotent fury experienced at that
moment by the audience is the heart of the sequence.
6. The scene of the baby carriage rolling down the stairs is moving in a similar fashion
as that of the scene of the mother carrying her dead child because everyone can
identify in some way with the action. The child is defenseless and should not a
victim of such cruelty, and the child’s mother should not be taken away from it
because it has no way of providing for itself. The image of the mother receiving a
shot is hard enough, yet we she falls knocking over the carriage she gave her life to
protect it almost too much for the audience to take.
7. Potemkin is easily a Russian communist propaganda film. The intense emotional
images, that of the mutiny and the Odessa steps, are all designed to create a given
response from the viewer. It is always one of pity or sympathy or empathy for those
of the mutinying sailors and one of anger, rage or resentment for any that are opposed
to them. Given the historical background of this film, the sailors represented the
modern communist regime and the opposition represented the previous government.