Dialectical Montage as a Vehicle for Political Messaging
Sergei Eisenstein expertly uses dialectical montage to demonstrate the plight of Russians in the midst of the revolution in his silent film The Battleship Potemkin (1925). Specifically in the massacre on the Odessa Steps scene, montage editing helps convey exaggerated feelings of fear and helplessness in the context of the political state in Russia; the famous and fictitious scene posits political unrest and terror associated with the Bolsheviks tyranny. Eisenstein’s use of abrupt cuts juxtaposes images throughout the scene, assigning them deeper meaning.
The scene begins with Eisenstein’s thesis: average citizens gathered on the steps to celebrate the sailors’ rebellion. Men, women, …show more content…
Just like the Bolsheviks political takeover, the carriage begins rolling slowly and rapidly gains momentum, banging uncontrollably down the stairs. Interspersed reaction shots show the helplessness and despair on the faces of the civilians as they watch utter terror unfold in front of their eyes. The Kuleshov Effect is prevalent here, as the expressions on their faces is read as terror due to the juxtaposition of the reaction shots to the massacre on the steps. Rapid cuts between people running past bodies down the stairs, close ups of firing guns and marching boots, and reaction shots of those paralyzed in fear watching the carriage roll toward its doom portray the horror and political unrest at this time in Russia. Eisenstein portrays the soldiers as an extension of the tyrannical regime in this scene, and uses them to demonstrate the ruthlessness, power, and force of the Bolsheviks through the unstoppable massacre of innocent men, women, children, and infants. The dreaded fate of the baby in the carriage is met as it starts to flip, and the shot jumps quickly to a soldier brutally beating something offscreen. Finally, the scene ends with a close up of one of the women who watched the carriage plummet toward certain death as she, too, gets
Sergei Eisenstein expertly uses dialectical montage to demonstrate the plight of Russians in the midst of the revolution in his silent film The Battleship Potemkin (1925). Specifically in the massacre on the Odessa Steps scene, montage editing helps convey exaggerated feelings of fear and helplessness in the context of the political state in Russia; the famous and fictitious scene posits political unrest and terror associated with the Bolsheviks tyranny. Eisenstein’s use of abrupt cuts juxtaposes images throughout the scene, assigning them deeper meaning.
The scene begins with Eisenstein’s thesis: average citizens gathered on the steps to celebrate the sailors’ rebellion. Men, women, …show more content…
Just like the Bolsheviks political takeover, the carriage begins rolling slowly and rapidly gains momentum, banging uncontrollably down the stairs. Interspersed reaction shots show the helplessness and despair on the faces of the civilians as they watch utter terror unfold in front of their eyes. The Kuleshov Effect is prevalent here, as the expressions on their faces is read as terror due to the juxtaposition of the reaction shots to the massacre on the steps. Rapid cuts between people running past bodies down the stairs, close ups of firing guns and marching boots, and reaction shots of those paralyzed in fear watching the carriage roll toward its doom portray the horror and political unrest at this time in Russia. Eisenstein portrays the soldiers as an extension of the tyrannical regime in this scene, and uses them to demonstrate the ruthlessness, power, and force of the Bolsheviks through the unstoppable massacre of innocent men, women, children, and infants. The dreaded fate of the baby in the carriage is met as it starts to flip, and the shot jumps quickly to a soldier brutally beating something offscreen. Finally, the scene ends with a close up of one of the women who watched the carriage plummet toward certain death as she, too, gets