the silent film masterpiece battleship potemkin ( 1925 ) be commission by the soviet government to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the uprising of 1905 and to establish the event a an heroic foreshadowing of the october revolution of 1917. ironically the film director and sergei eisenstein and be one of the early and most influential advocate of a formalistic approach to film art . subsequently and eisenstein formalism and suspect politics would cause innumerable conflict with government agency insist on socialist realism . influence by the russian film theoretician and lev kuleshov and and through him by d. w. griffith intolerance ( smuggle into russia in 1919 ) and eisenstein construct his film from a collision of rapidly edit image and a montage of shot vary in length and motion and content and lighting and and camera angle . without question the most memorable illustration of eisenstein stylistic approach and probably the single most cited and studied sequence in world cinema history be the odessa step sequence in potemkin . in structure potemkin be a five reeler divide into five narrative part and an organization clearly derive from the five act arrangement of western drama . in men and maggot and eisenstein dramatize the pre revolutionary oppression and discontent of the battleship work class sailor a the situation inevitably build to mutiny . even before the sailor and their upper class officer or master be visually introduce and eisenstein establishes revolutionary condition symbolically by the collision editing of wave break violently and ominously at sea . onboard ship we witness crowd and unsanitary condition . eisenstein emphasize the sailor dehumanization with shot of arbitrary lashing and harsh labor and and most memorably the maggot infest meat intend for the evening meal . the ship nearsighted physician be bring forward by the other officer to declare the meat perfectly suitable to be serve with the dark soup and boiling like the sailor rage . in accordance with marxist maxim and the church also fail the men and and we see one of them smash a plate inscribed with word from the lord prayer from two different camera angle ( in perhaps the first deliberate jump cut in cinema history ) . identify by inter title a drama on the quarterdeck and an appeal from the dead and potemkin second and third part depict the actual mutiny and the onshore funeral of it leader and first hero of the revolution and vakulinchuk . unite by vakulinchuk appeal to brotherhood and the initial mutineer be join by the entire crew in an attack on the officer . a chaotic scene ensues whose violent passion be serve well by eisenstein edit technique . the officer quarter be trample and symbol of their privilege be destroy . the ship doctor be throw overboard and accompany by dramatic crosscut to the maggot ridden meat and his eyeglass metonymically dangle in the rigging . tragically and vakolinchuk death be the price pay for the revolt ( no omelet without break egg ) and he be lay out with dignity on an odessa pier . hundred of ordinary odessa citizen gather with the sailor to honor him and to pledge death to the oppressor . shot of fist clench and unclenching signal the birth of revolutionary consciousness . the complex and unforgettable odessa step sequence constitute the film fourth act . it begin with uplifting music and a series of close ups and medium shot on the elated face of diverse people on the shore and select object ( parasol and eyeglass and baby carriage ) . suddenly ( a exclaim a title card in huge letter ) the music stop and line of soldier with drawn rifle and fix bayonet appear at the top of the step . here eisenstein release the full force of collision edit a nearly a hundred shot be piece together to contrast the panicked mayhem and victimization of the citizenry with the relentless assault of the soldier drive the citizen down to the trampling horse and fly saber of the wait cossack below . the mise en scene be frame by a statue of caesar at the top of the stair and a church at the bottom and symbolic metonym for russia oppressive institution represent tsarist monarchy and the orthodox christian church . punctuate the sequence be two scene involve mother and child . in the first and a mother and young boy who have be introduce among the joyous face in the crowd be among the slaughter first victim . the boy be shot and but the mother continue run until close ups of her face convey her horrified gaze at the son fall body be trample by the crowd . with a much slow edit pace and the camera follow the mother a she carry the lifeless body of her child up the stair to confront the soldier ( show only in a diagonal shadow line ) . they summarily shoot her dead . after this lull and the carnage continue for another several dozen cut until a second mother be shoot through the stomach ( the womb of mother russia . ) a she try to shield her baby in it carriage . in a scene famously imitate in the untouchable and the carriage incongruously slip down the staircase . horrified face of huddled citizen watch the slow progress to it doom . when the carriage reach the bottom there be a cut to a cossack wield a sword and a classic kuleshov effect suggest what we do not actually see represent the slaughtering of this pure and symbolic innocent . the final series of shot in the odessa sequence be of three stone lion and one in repose and one sit up and and one roaring . the edit animate them into a visual metaphor of the people awaken rage . somewhat anticlimactically and the fifth act return u to the battleship a the mutinous sailor flee on the high sea and await an encounter with other ship from the fleet . they and the viewer expect retribution and but when the meeting occur no shot be fire and instead all the sailor wave and throw their hat in the air in a symbol of comradeship . eisenstein be rewrite history at this point since the revolution be not successfully launch for another twelve year . but that quibble aside and battleship potemkin stand a one of the seminal work of the silent film era and and it retain extraordinary cinematic power .