After watching the Battleship Potemkin, I am now a communist.
Just kidding. I did, however, think it portrayed its propagandic message loud and clear. What struck me early on was the use of "comrades" and when the intertitles said "dissolved in the mess." It really showed a unified front and the things that could be by embracing communist ideals. The revolutionaries were presented as the good guys.
I thought the use of black and white to identify people as revolutionaries or tsarist was very clever. It made the distinction clear and, if this were being used to send a message, this would be ideal. Not only were the clothes of the tsarists black, but the prayer plate was also black. Needless to say, the priest was also dressed in black. This distinction is lost a little when we see Odessa and when some of the revolutionaries put on their black jackets or some of the petty officers rebel, but it is there nonetheless.
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"This distinction is lost a little when we see Odessa and when some of the revolutionaries put on their black jackets or some of the petty officers rebel, but it is there nonetheless."
Oh, most definitely--and I think we can say this film makes black & white character distinctions both literally and figuratively. The question for me is: does this make for a realistic portrayal of life? Does life exist in such stark black and white terms--or isn't there a lot of "gray" ground that doesn't make for such easy distinctions?
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