Please post your comments by Wednesday, October 29th at 8pm
The Battleship Potempkin is a piece of revolutionary propaganda and an early investigation into the deeply emotive power of editing. Consider in your comment how Eisenstein uses 'dialectical montage' (contrasting unrelated shots to lead the viewer to associations in a way that couldn't otherwise be done and often undescored by the shock of violence). Discuss an example or two of such montage work and how these juxtapositions made you feel. How does this emphasis on editing feel like a modernization of the medium?
Alternatively, (if John chooses to emphasize this in my absence), please comment on "The Jazz Singer," addressing how complex considerations of ethnicity was and is an important part urban American identity.
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20 comments:
Oliver Young:
The film Battleship Potempkin by Sergei Einsenstein in my opinion is a powerful film, I never really thought about the power that film has, to get some one to agree with your views. it was kind of neat in the film how each country, nation etc. all had a way of making themselves look flawless and their enemies wrong, So its all about how you relate the facts and how you use them to your advantage.
World War 2 was a bit different that World war 1 because it included other countries that were not in Europe, such as Japan which had been a relatively quiet nation during the first World War. The second War was about payback for the Germans because the world seemed to blame them for the first World War.
War propanganda is a powerful tool when it comes to war and film helped to encourage its practice but now your target could be reached on a far greater scale.
The jazz Singer- I don't like much jazz but what I can say about emphasis on editing how it feel like a modernization of the medium is that it softer. What I mean by that is the jazz I listen to is moving compare to in this movie, it make's you want to fall asleep.
To me the actors were just acting. They didn't really seem like they were passionate about what they were singing. For example the guy who put on make up that look like a clown. He seemed real fake to me and at times it looks like he wasn't singing.
It looked like he was lip singing and they just put an voice over on. As for the editing their not much for me to say except it better than the last two videos.
Major Carter
The "Battleship Potempkin" was a good movie to the masses that they can up-rise against injustices in the system. I showed that if the people join together and organize themselves, They can have justice.
It was interesting in the midst of the townspeople organizing themselves, when they got to an unified moment someone yells, "kill the Jews!". The people did not like what the system was doing to them, but someone wants to do injustice to someone else- the Jews.
What we see is so influential so I think the movie was a good influence socially.
It was pretty apparent the Battleship Potempkin was a very early attempt at provoking emotion through visual contrast. The first visual that came to mind for me was when the men first announced their dislikes to the maggot-ridden meat. As the men formed and ally against the officers and the ship's chef was going to prepare the meat for the next meal, there were shots of a turret being prepared for what could have been a maggot meat launching. The idea being the sailors were preparing for mutiny, not knowing at the time how far it would go. There were more incidents of dialectical montage, but I could appreciate the attempt at utilizing a little "good will prevail" such as when the crazy haired man appeared with crucifix in hand asking the Lord to "Bring the unruly to reason". He sort of appeared out of nowhere and was watching over the mutiny making sure that, indeed, the Lord is watching and will not let the wrong doers prevail. Quick shots between this crazy-haired man and the attempt at assassination were intertwined to provoke good-side, bad-side emotion and also remind us the intent of the story.
The smoothness factor was still being perfected I think, and so the movie still had a jerkiness to it, which created a little confusion on occasion, but it clearly had come a ways since Birth of a Nation. I had to view it without reading into it, so the actors could portray the story.
Potemkin is the perfect dichotomy of form vs versus function. it is an example of how a talented artist took an "idea" from reality forged it into something visually pleasing to the eye (form) and used it as a "tool" (functionality) to "affect" or more appropriatly "infect" others with its substance. moreover, it was indeed revolutionary proaganda in that it used peoples logic and emotion against them. "Spinning the truth" one could call this an early form of mind control just one example of how art reflects/effects society.
i found power in the term revolution is war
that is so true even till this day, there will always be an on going battle on who has the latest and the top technology as well as revolutionary discoveries in this world.
you have to fight for what you believe in and take a stand when the time is right.
sometimes that means two people taking a stand at the same time and therefore forcing them to engage in an on going battle with one another or war.
I watched Battleship Potempkin. It was only around 1 hour 15 minutes long. It was interesting, in my opinion. So much about that time period was in that movie. These days you'd hear someone mention crewmen or crew instead of "The Men."
Killed for a plate of soup. I didn't really like that term. That simple sentence just took away all the meaning and purpose of that character to me. It made the act petty and trivial, and reduced all the meaning and fire that went into that mutiny to pure circumstance. As if to say, "Someone wanted his campbell's soup so they shot him." Instead of something more fitting to appeal to the real reason he ended up getting shot.
Another part that I thought was oddly funny, was when they first started the viewing of his body. He's laying there with his fingers laced together, and you can see him breathing. There is no rigor mortis going on. For the limitation of the day, I still think they did pretty well.
I also had some reservations about the ship firing on the "opera house." Even though the actual building or structures that were being demolished may not have been the actual opera house. I still found it a little unsavory. On the other hand though, this kind of film probably couldn't be completed without a little unsavory business somewhere in the story. I am interested in finding out if the footage was from actual cannon fire from the battleship though. That would add a huge flare of cool to this movie.
The end was sort of anticlimactic for me. The Men rushing full steam ahead towards the squadron and wondering if the squadron will join them or not. Then they get the news that they will and then there is a celebration. And cut.
-Jeremy Kashatok
The film Battleship Potempkin by Sergei Einstein showed power and how your enemies sometimes are your own kind. The shipmates gathered as one to overcome the wrongs such as bad food on the ship. When it came down to it and the upper crew tried to take control back and kill the group of shipmates all of them rebelled and went against the ships captains once and for all. Overall this movie was very influential for its time and the way it expressed emotion in large quantities was done very well.
After Einsenstein showed "The Men" getting food and supplies from the townspeople once they leave I thought it was interesting to see the lady carry her boy and the army just walked over them like it was nothing. Pretty good film to watch and I learned a lot from it as well.
"Battleship Potemkin" reminded me of "Birth of a Nation" both films have similar cinematography elements. I enjoyed " Battleship Potemkin" I could really see the improvement in filmmaking, the iris and overlay effects cleaner there were less jump cuts and the story was much easer to follow. I thought the shot of the stroller falling down the stairs was truly amazing for the time in which the film was made.
Battleship Potempkin was an ambitious piece for it's time, and still holds up today as such.
Sergei masterfully controlled his crowds, which seem to burst of the scene.
The crowd massacacre would be difficult for today's audiences, but I think the slaughtering and trampling of the children only served as more propaganda against the Cossacks.
The "Kill The Jews" line threw me off as well, but I guess the shocking level of violence that followed after that made me forget it until later.
The camera work gives a very viscreal and cynical spin on the events. By keeping the camera with the espaping mob, it created a sense of urgency. When it followed the distraught mother holding her dead child, it illustrated her courage because we knew full well she was going headfirst into an unrelenting bloodbath, and based on what we saw, her chances of survival were slim.
I wish the great filmmmakers of this time didn't have to be propandgists, but you can't deny the power of this work.
Not bad for a silent foreign film from that era. The cinematography, storyline, lighting, and editing are much better than the first movie we saw. The acting was a bit over the top but it is getting there.
However, there thing that threw me off in this movie was the continuity of the Potemkin when it cuts to the wide shot --- a model of a ship or a ship with masts on a 20th Century battleship and the guy who thought he was "The Big Dude Upstairs" --- didn't last that long.
But for the message of the movie, I would've done that same, but in a faster way --- by planning it ahead of time and dealt with the "Top Brass" by having them walk the plank or let the masses on deal with them.
Battleship Potemkin is a very emotional film. It makes the viewer feel their emotion and pain throughtout, and lets them know that you can do anything you set your mind to. These people had no idea what was going to happen and even if they were going to succeed and yet they took a risk and put themselves out there. It is motivational to many.
I think that "Battleship Potempkin" is a great film. You first look at it and you think, man that looks really cheesy. Even the title is a little odd, in my opinion. But over all is a pretty good film.
The film shows each side and how powerful they can be, or look. The movie totally shows what the war sounds like to most people. Big and bad, ships covered with men. The whole shabang. The uprising of the town people and how the were able to get organized was very cool.
Im adding this to my "you got to watch this" movie list. Cause overall its a great story and movie. I wonder what it would be like if they were to re-do the movie. Would they have the same effect of their audience? I wonder.
I watched the film "Battleship Potemkin" and was impressed. The story wasn't very good and very hard to follow. The ghosts in the beginning confused me because it didn't seem like a ghost movie. I thought it was war. It didn't really clarify the sides to me, who was fighting against who?
The part where they are all running down the stairs had an interesting shot where they either used a pulley system or like a dolly maybe, I couldn't really tell. It seems to me that they are paying more attention to composition in this film compared to the last two.
Watching the film Battleship Potempkin was an excellent experience as a film maker interested in cinematography. I will say that the story was lost on me, I couldn't tell if the movie was about ghosts, or soup, it all kinda got lost in translation. The enjoyed many of the shots, and the emotion photographed was simply beautiful. My favorite scene was definitely the famous stairs scene, although I was just a little bothered by the man/woman mother carrying his/her child, but the emotion was intense, and so much of the violence felt real for a movie of its time.
Though I found myself becoming very board with the movie, I did enjoy watching it for how it was captured and the photographic techniques executed were exquisite.
This film began rather oddly. After the huge "bad meat & soup" debacle I thought to myself, "what the hell is going on?". I understood that the officers of the ship were demanding of their crew, but when what appeared to be two ghosts hanging from the mast and a character who looked like Moses entered into the picture, it was unclear to me what exactly this film was trying say.
When the film moved to the "Odessa Steps" scene it became even more bizarre but also incredibly experimental for its time; with regard to human emotion, camera techniques, and acting out the fatal stampeding of a young child.
I watched 'Battleship Potemkin' this week. It was pretty entertaining to watch during the fights and main events. It was suppose to be serious, but I saw some humor in it. The way the people reacted. The sailor were kind of like heroes at the end, the glories of war…I can see why this movie was successful, they used a lot of creative angles and editing for this decade, below the grate angles, etc… It was of an historical riot and the aftermath of it, had a lot of military machinery and talent, it was put together very nicely. A lot of the scenes were drawn out, staying to long in one shot or one subject; I was bored easily during the scenes between the action scenes. It is hard to show drama without sound. Over all I think this was a great film, especially in this decade, I was happy to have the experience to watch a good silent film.
he film The Jazz Singer by Al Jolson can be very disturbing and confusing for viewers in our current times. We are taught about our American history with the slavery and blacks being discriminated against and this movie is a prime example of that history. Blacks were perceived physically in films as clown like with the white rim around the mouth. Blacks were played by white actors because again they were perceive as illiterate and incompetent to be actors.
Overall, I think that the music was beautiful and the film had a great message. The message was for parents to let their children be themselves and follow their dreams for their own happiness eventually they will come back to their parents if their parents let go.
Lucky for subtitles that I could understand this film. Battleship Potempkin (1905) was surprisingly a powerful film even though I couldn't understand the dialogue fully. The overall message was conveyed through the acting and camera angles. I think it is hilarious when the Doctor of the ship comes in at the beggining and says something about the meat, "They are only dead maggots, wash the meat in brine." The ship's crew soon revolted.
Poor Vakulinchuk, but his death did not go unheard. All of Odessa decided that they shall fight for their freedom just as Vakulinchuk did for himself and his shipmates. Low and behold the citizens mutiny would not go unpunished either. Unfortunatly they too were executed on a staircase in front of some kind of capitol building. The baby carrage going down the stairs was something a little gruesome, but definatley made a point that the government had full control over every aspect of these peoples lives. -Justin Dailey- Battleship Potempkin
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