Blu-Ray Review: Battleship Potemkin

1925 - Russia
Directed By Sergei Eisenstein

 Battleship Potemkin, about the 1905 Russian Revolution, remains revolutionary to this date. Popularizing the use of montage, it's hard to think of any film since that doesn't owe at least a small debt to this classic.

It's been a favorite of mine and I was eager to see how a film of it's vintage would look in hi-def.

I was pleasantly suprised to see how strong and vivid the images are, despite being 85 years old.
Sure, there are several heavy lines that do crop up in the film and heavy grain throughout (as it was made) but the film has never looked better. The quality of the new transfer shows vastly more details than any beat-up old print you'd see in a film class or on some budget DVD.

Facing the scissors of many censor boards through the years, Battleship Potemkin has gone through several versions.
Few records survive of the first cut of the film, or even its second official version showcased at its 1926 premiere in Berlin, so historians have painstakingly restored the film to make a close approximate of those early versions. The intertitles also changed through the years, and this version returns them to their originals.
The 1926 version featured its own original score performed by an orchestra and that is what you hear on the soundtrack. The music is very dynamic and newly recorded with slight adaptations to fit the pacing/editing of this new version. The score is vastly superior to any public domain version of the film with random music that doesn't fit the action.
You can learn about the music and film restoration from a 40-minute documentary included on the disc. Some photo galleries are also included showing behind-the-scenes photos and movie posters.

Battleship Potemkin is one of the best silent films and Kino International has done an excellent job steering it into this 21st century blu-ray world.