HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN

BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN

Studio: Kino International

Year: 1925

Rated: Unrated

Film Length: 1 hour, 12 minutes

Aspect Ratio: 1080p High Definition (1.33:1)

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Subtitles: English

Intertitles: English, Russian

Release Date: April 20, 2009

The Movie

Battleship Potemkin is the cinematic retelling of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 on board a Czarist Russian battleship and the ensuing failed rebellion in Odessa. This short summary fails to do justice to this film directed by Sergei Eisenstein that has been widely revered and copied in other films. The film’s admirers include such disparate personalities as Douglas Fairbanks, David O. Selznick, and Joseph Goebbels. Fairbanks attended the premiere in Berlin in 1926 after his own film, Robin Hood, competed with Potemkin for Russian box office receipts in late 1925. Fairbanks reportedly screened the film for many of his Hollywood friends. The Odessa steps sequence in Potemkin has been copied and given homage in numerous films including Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables.

Whereas the film industry revered Potemkin for its revolutionary presentation of film montage, national leaders admired or decried the film for its revolutionary ideas and elevation of propaganda to an art form. Goebbels commented that "anyone who had no firm political conviction could become a Bolshevik after seeing the film." Certainly the film depicts the Czarist government as selfish and corrupt, which led the film to be edited by censors in other countries who believed that the ideas in the film could lead to civil unrest in their respective nations.

This high definition version of Battleship Potemkin is the restored version that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2005. The original negative had been butchered and re-edited by censors as early as the 1920s. All of the film frames known to have been cut from various versions of the film have been restored to the film. In addition, the original Russian intertitles have also been reintroduced and are available for selection on the disc menu for those who do not prefer the English intertitles.

Video

The movie is in 1080p high definition in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The transition between frames has obviously been given a lot of effort since this version suffers from none of the jumpiness from frame to frame that we are accustomed to seeing on ancient films. Although the film has been restored, the picture quality still suffers from numerous scratches and other imperfections. Those imperfections may lend a character to the film since the viewer is not likely to forget that this film was produced in the dawn of film-making. This also means that the usual demons of edge enhancement and DNR are non-existent and the film shows an appropriate amount of grain. This is a fine transfer, but flaws in the negative have not been corrected with digital tools to such great effect as we have seen in recent high definition transfers of 30s films like The Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind.

Audio

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks convey the full range of the score composed by Edmund Meisel in 1926. The Meisel score has been reproduced here and performed by the Deutsches Filmorchestra. The music accompanying the film at its 1925 premiere in Moscow consisted merely of pre-existing orchestral cues. The Meisel score was composed at the behest of director Eisenstein and accompanied the film for the first time at its premiere in Berlin in 1926.

Special Features

The German documentary "Tracing The Battleship Potemkin" (42:23) is included with English subtitles. The documentary includes footage from the film interspersed with interviews of film historians and discussion of the storied history of the film, including the efforts made to restore it to be as consistent as possible with Eisenstein’s original version.

The special features also include a photo gallery of behind the scenes photographs, deleted scenes, and promotional materials. An 8-page booklet is also included with photographs and a history provided by Bruce Bennett from the New York Sun.

Conclusion

Battleship Potemkin is an entertaining film and stands up surprisingly well for a film of its vintage. The film techniques employed in this film have been adapted and copied by such renowned filmmakers as Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, and Martin Scorsese. Given this influence, it is little surprise that this film is required viewing in film schools worldwide. Telling a story in the film medium with little or no dialogue takes consummate skill, and telling a story well by this technique is the sign of a master. Silent films are not to everyone’s taste, but if you want to try one, you could do a lot worse than Battleship Potemkin directed by Sergei Eisenstein.