Director
Sergei Eisenstein
Leading Actors/Actresses
Aleksandr Antonov
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Vladimir Barskiy
Genre
Drama, History
Language
Russian
Awards
Date of Release
December 21, 1925
Producer
Jacob Bliokh
Setting and Context
1905 Russian Revolution aboard Battleship Potemkin and streets of Odessa.
Narrator and Point of View
The sailors on board the Potemkin and the people of Odessa.
Tone and Mood
Serious, Violent, Dramatic
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonists are the sailors on Potemkin and people of Odessa; antagonists are the commanding officers and Tsar.
Major Conflict
The sailors of the Potemkin mutiny against their commanders for poor treatment and join the Russian revolution
Climax
The sailors on the Tsarist ships refuse to fire on the Potemkin as a sign of comradery.
Foreshadowing
The "Daily Bread" plate being smashed foreshadows the sailors not being able to take their treatment any longer and their ensuing fight with the commanding officers.
Understatement
The suffering of the people of Russia is left unseen and only alluded to during the film; we are instead meant to infer their status based on the microcosm of the sailors.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
Shots are juxtaposed against each other to create new meanings rather than simply showing the sequence of events (see “Soviet Montage Theory” for more)
Allusions
“Give us this day our daily bread” is a line from the Christian Lord’s Prayer
Paradox
The film treats Vakulinchuk as a protagonist/martyr figure while also espousing the value of collective action and power of the masses.
Parallelism
The two instances of distributing food— bread and canned food from the ship's storeroom, and the Odessa citizens bringing food by boat—both position the sharing of food as an act of defiance.
