Sunday, May 19, 2013

The Battleship Potemkin

In 1905, the sailors on the Battleship Potemkin revolted against the command of their ship after being given rotten meat to eat.  They refused to eat the meat and the leaders of the ship commanded the security aboard the ship to force them to eat it.  The sailors then rebelled, took control of the ship, and ran it aground in Odessa.  The rebellion was celebrated following the Communist takeover and in 1925 director Sergei Eisenstein's film version of the events memorialized it forever.  

Down near the Odessa port you can find two memorials to the events of the mutiny on the Potemkin.  This one is dedicated to the sailors.


A second memorial about a block away is dedicated to Grigory Vakulinchuk who was one of the sailors on the Potemkin.  He was killed during the mutiny and his funeral became a huge political protest against the Czar.  Those events cover much of the second half of the film.  


Battleship Potemkin is in the public domain and so it is available to watch on YouTube for free and you can find it here.


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