Battleship Potemkin

100 Years

Before anyone points it out, yes, Battleship Potemkin is absolutely a propaganda film produced by the Soviet Union.

It is also one of the most important and influential movies ever made by anyone in the world. Director Sergei Eisenstein is often credited with the concept of the “montage.” Let that sit for a moment, a concept as common to us now as a montage had to be invented by someone, and Eisenstein was undoubtedly one of its pioneers, and it’s certainly present in Battleship Potemkin.

That’s all without mentioning the legendary Odessa Steps massacre sequence, which has been parodied for decades and decades since 1925. Battleship Potemkin’s legacy cannot be erased, it is one of the films of the silent era that the entirety of film history rests upon. It’s truly incredible that this film will be a century old by December of 2025.