Michael Mann’s Favorite Film Is What He Called “One of Cinema’s Great Classics” (2024)

Famed director Michael Mann has recently joined fellow director Martin Scorsese and a host of other cinephiles to post his list of favorite films on Letterboxd, the "social network for film lovers." His is a diverse list, filled with films that are regular entries on favorite lists (Raging Bull, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), foreign films (L’Atalante), and Oscar winners (The Hurt Locker). The list, as Mann himself adds, is "in no particular order," with one exception: 1925's Battleship Potemkin, his top selection. It may come as a surprise to some, although it shouldn't, as Mann has long expressed his love for the film, praising Sergei Eisenstein's epic for "applying theory to montage, composition and meaning," and citing how greatly the film has impacted British and American cinema. High praise for a film pushing 100 years old, but well earned, as Mann and many, many others would testify.

Battleship Potemkin

NR

Drama

Epic

War

Battleship Potemkin is a 1925 silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein. It dramatizes the 1905 mutiny of the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin against their oppressive officers. The film is renowned for its pioneering montage techniques, particularly the Odessa Steps sequence, and remains a significant work in the history of cinema.

Release Date

December 21, 1925

Director

Sergei Eisenstein

Cast

Aleksandr Antonov , Grigori Aleksandrov

Runtime

77 minutes

The Road to 'Battleship Potemkin' Begins in 1905

To truly understand the importance of Battleship Potemkin, it pays to have a little knowledge of the history behind it. The film depicts the events surrounding the mutiny aboard the Potemkin, an Imperial Russian Navy battleship in the Black Sea fleet, on June 27, 1905. On that day, more than 700 sailors on board, already in a state of unrest over living conditions and their treatment at the hands of superiors, protested against the quality of their meat rations. The ship's doctor looked over the meat, and despite the presence of maggots, declared it was suitable for consumption. It was the final straw, and the sailors led a mutiny that saw several senior officers killed, and torpedo quartermaster Afanasy Matyushenko took command. It was one of the key moments of the 1905 Russian Revolution, and although the mutineers would eventually fall, it would serve to inspire the successful Russian Revolution of 1917.

20 years later, the Communist Party of Russia would commission a film to celebrate the anniversary of the 1905 Revolution, and the assignment was given to Sergei Eisenstein, a promising visionary who to that point had only one film to his credit, 1925's Strike, the movie that first showcased Eisenstein's revolutionary skills as a film editor. There was no questioning that the purpose of the film was propaganda, pushing the class-based Marxist ideology to Russian citizens for their continued support of the revolution. It would end up becoming a perfect marriage of purpose and talent. In choosing to dramatize the mutiny aboard the Potemkin, Eisenstein took what was a relatively minor event and turned it into an epic showcase of the working class triumphing over Tsarist bourgeois soldiers, using montages of varying features and duration to impact reaction.

'Battleship Potemkin' Brings Insurrection to Vivid Life

Battleship Potemkin is set in June 1905, a 74-minute film divided into five acts. In the first act, "Men and Maggots," two sailors on watch discuss how the crew needs to support the revolution taking place in Russia. Following their shift, the two men retire to their sleeping quarters, where an officer, inspecting the area, aggressively attacks a nearby sleeping sailor. An awakened Vakulinchuk (Aleksandr Antonov, "Comrades! The time has come when we too must speak out. Why wait? All of Russia has risen! Are we to be the last?" In the morning, the sailors take issue with the poor quality of the meat, which the ship's doctor insists is fine, and that the maggots infesting the meat are simply insects that can be washed off before cooking. The cook, also questioning the meat, starts preparing borscht, which the crew refuses to eat.

Act II, "Drama on the Deck," sees all those who refused the meat accused of insubordination, and are brought to the deck where they are given religious last rites. The sailors are forced to kneel, and a canvas is thrown over them as a firing squad arrives. The First Officer demands they fire, but remembering Vakulinchuk's cries they instead lower their rifles, instigating the uprising. The officers are outnumbered, and thrown overboard by the sailors who have now taken control. Sadly, Vakulinchuk, whose speech inspired the sailors, is killed in the melee. But not in vain, as the third act, "A Dead Man Calls Out," sees Vakulinchuk's body taken ashore at the port of Odessa and put on public display, with a sign that says, "For a spoonful of borscht." Odessa's citizens are appalled, and turn against the Tsar and his government. They freely welcome the sailors, only their actions and plans against the government attract the attention of the police.

Act IV, "The Odessa Steps," sees the citizens sailing out with supplies for the sailors aboard the Potemkin, while others gather at the Odessa steps to praise the rebels. Celebration quickly turns to chaos as a detachment of Cossacks form battle lines at the top of the steps and march down, cold automatons dispatching innocent men, women, and children with bayonets and gunfire. Those who outrun the Cossacks are greeted by a government cavalry now coming up the stairs from the bottom, continuing the massacre of innocents. In retaliation, the Potemkin's sailors use the battleship's guns to fire on the city's opera house, where Tsarist military leaders are convened. Just then, disturbing news arrives that a squadron of loyal warships is on their way to stop the Potemkin insurrection. But in the final act, "One Against All," the Potemkin, sailing out to face the Tsar's fleet and defiantly flying the red flag, Only the Tsarist forces refuse to open fire, and allow the Potemkin to freely pass between their ships as they cheer and shout in solidarity with the mutineers.

'Battleship Potemkin's Impact is Everywhere

The film is an impressive feat, bringing the story of the Potemkin to life... or at least some of it. One of the many impacts that Battleship Potemkin has had on film is the idea of "fiction as fact," with many of the events in the film created solely for propaganda, not a reflection of what truly happened. The mutiny did indeed happen, but one historian, Eduard Scheglov, head of Odessa's City Hall information department, discounts that the meat was infested by maggots. There was no uprising in Odessa, definitely no massacre on the city's steps, and the glorious ending, where all the Tsarist's faithful aboard the other ships let the Potemkin sail into freedom while cheering them on, most definitely didn't happen, with the sailors forced to surrender. That legacy can be seen in films like Braveheart, another film that plays fast and loose with facts to turn William Wallace (Mel Gibson) from man to icon.

But the purpose of a biopic is to tell a story, and in that regard, Battleship Potemkin set the standard going forward. His eye for imagery is stark and precise, simple statements that leave little room for speculation on their meaning. This aspect likely influenced Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, utilizing images of unison and form to tell the tale of a Nazi party united as one front. Its other contribution to film is far less controversial, and that's in Eisenstein's deft editing skills. His visionary use of the montage led to it becoming one of the foundations of filmmaking. Eisenstein believed that combining multiple shots, with sequential images each possessing their own symbolism juxtaposed against others with their own, creates a new, even more powerful symbolism.

The famed Odessa Steps sequence is a perfect example of the technique. Eisenstein mirrors the disorientation and panic of the massacre by using quick jump cuts, wide shots of goose-stepping soldiers, emotional close-ups, and stationary and tracking shots. One child is repeatedly shown being trampled on by the fleeing crowd, cutting back and forth with a close-up of his mother's horrified reaction at seeing it. By focusing on the personal tragedies of the oppressed, Eisenstein succeeds in stirring sympathy for them, and in contrast, by not showing the faces of the soldiers, he turns them into monsters. Ever since, montages have been commonplace, so often used it's difficult to name a film that doesn't utilize the technique. Then there's the pram, the one still carrying a baby that slowly rolls down the Odessa stairs after the child's mother is killed. Eisenstein does the same here, cutting back repeatedly to the most innocent of the lot falling to an inevitable end. The pram alone has inspired filmmakers for ages, with films paying homage to it in multiple ways, perhaps none more famously than The Untouchables.

Long story short, if you truly call yourself a cinephile, you would do well to take Michael Mann at his word and watch one of the world's most influential, and still incendiary classics.

Battleship Potemkin is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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