Film: Battleship Potemkin (116/250)
First Time/Rewatch: Rewatch
Even if this film was only the famous Odessa Steps sequence, it would have a special place in film history. It's such a powerful scene: the chaos of the crowd running in all directions as the armed Cossacks descend the steps like a row of robots. Children are trampled, faces shot, and yes, a baby carriage falls and is toppled. The events leading up to these scene are powerful too. They're supposed to be, it's a propaganda film. While based on true events, the Odessa Steps scene never actually happened. It provoked such a response that it was banned in several countries. And its power doesn't diminish all these years later. The tension of those early scenes...will the "traitors" be shot? Will they eat that tainted meat? It had me tapping my foot with anxiety, despite the fact that this was not my first viewing of this film. The power of montage and closeup cannot be underestimated.
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