Episode 37 – Battleship Potemkin (1925)

It's 1925. The Russian Revolution is over. Vladimir Lenin believes that “the cinema is for us the most important of the arts," leading the Soviet Union to create the world's first professional film school. With a genius for editing that is still discussed today, director Sergei Eisenstein creates a movie that was once considered the greatest movie ever made. Battleship Potemkin tells the inspired-by-a-true-story tale of the sailors of the titular battleship and their struggle against their oppressive officers and government. It's art, but it's also propaganda. What Battleship Potemkin offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: an entry point to discuss Soviet montage theory and the Kuleshov effect; a masterfully edited silent epic; the famous Odessa Steps sequence; and a powerfully visceral film. Show Notes