Battleship Potemkin has received acclaim from modern critics. On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an overall 100% approval rating based on 49 reviews, with a rating average of 9.20/10. The site's consensus reads, "A technical masterpiece, Battleship Potemkin is Soviet cinema at its finest, and its montage editing techniques remain influential to this day."[50] Since its release Battleship Potemkin has often been cited as one of the finest propaganda films ever made, and is considered one of the greatest films of all time.[22][51] The film was named the greatest film of all time at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958.[3] Similarly, in 1952, Sight & Sound magazine cited Battleship Potemkin as the fourth-greatest film of all time; it was voted within the top ten in the magazine's five subsequent decennial polls, dropping to number 11 in the 2012 poll and number 54 in 2022.[52]
In 2007, a two-disc, restored version of the film was released on DVD. Time magazine's Richard Corliss named it one of the Top 10 DVDs of the year, ranking it at #5.[53] It ranked #3 in Empire's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.[54] In April 2011, Battleship Potemkin was re-released in UK cinemas, distributed by the British Film Institute. On its re-release, Total Film magazine gave the film a five-star review, stating: "...nearly 90 years on, Eisenstein's masterpiece is still guaranteed to get the pulse racing".[55]
Directors Orson Welles,[56] Michael Mann[57] and Paul Greengrass[58] placed Battleship Potemkin on their list of favorite films, and director Billy Wilder named it as his all-time favourite film.[39]
