Battleship Potemkin

Battleship Potemkin

Film Poster

Battleship Potemkin (1925) - Sergei Eisenstein

So far, the discussion of ideology has been primarily focused on ideology in general instead specific ideologies. What better film to introduce a more direct approach than the 1925 classic, Battleship Potemkin. A classic film that emerged in the early Soviet Union, it pioneered a variety of film techniques, most notably the montage. It is widely considered one of the best films of all time and is often described as a masterwork of Bolshevik propaganda.

Positive ideology

Unlike the other films examined so far, ideology serves a much different function in Battleship Potemkin. Instead of existing as a tool of dominance and control, ideology possesses a much more neutral nature. For the rebellious soldiers, ideology channels their dissidence into a meaningful movement instead of impotent rage. On the other hand, those opposed to the revolution seem blinded by their own ideological constraints, unable to see the authentic nature of the struggle (this is most clearly seen with the anti-Semitic citizen and the Cossacks on the Odessa steps). 

In a sense, this positions Battleship Potemkin as being deeply idealist in its political position, but I believe that to be a misreading of the nature of the rebellion in the film. For the sailors, ideology shapes their response, but does not create it. There is no concrete, singular catalyst for revolutionary action, but an organic outgrowth that emerges from the material conditions that are present in society. This reaction is essentially inevitable and possibly non-threatening without ideology, but it is clear that ideology is rooted within material conditions instead of transcending them. Ideology, therefore, is much less all-encompassing and totalizing, instead being a more secondary phenomenon.  

Tension and class struggle

One interesting aspect of the film is that the antagonisms and conflicts are not based around people as singular, autonomous entities, but instead parts of larger social groups that act against ambiguous, faceless opponents. Instead of the stoic, empowered individual breaking down the ideological structures that dominate society, ideology shifts and changes as various classes vie for power. 

This can be most clearly seen in the famous Odessa steps sequence, which is one of the most enduring images from the film. It depicts a massacre of innocents by czarist troops, with additional focus placed on the baby carriage rolling around corpses as it careens down the steps. While this may seem like an easy tool for emotional manipulation (showing a baby surrounded by death and destruction), it has a deeper meaning in regards to the ideological significance of the scene. The Cossacks demonstrate how ideology operates in the modern world; ideology does not discriminate, it targets men, women and children as it attempts to discipline and control all dissident thought. The willingness to kill innocents is a sign of the cold, impersonal nature of ideology, showing how it exists not in service of humanity, but to control it. 

Odessa steps

Additionally, class struggle plays a central role in the film (for reasons that should be obvious when considering the sociopolitical landscape of the Soviet Union less than a decade after the October Revolution). The czarist troops are unequivocally opposed to protesters of all sorts, violent and peaceful. The sides are clearly organized along class lines: the officers versus the ordinary sailors, the Cossacks versus the civilian population. This positions ideology as being essentially dialectical in nature and emerging succinctly along class lines. Each class is governed by its own ideological structure and thus conflict inevitable. 

Revolutionary spontaneity

In Battleship Potemkin, the unifying geist of the revolution is that of an unrestrained optimism filtered through the lens of ideology. Despite harsh opposition, the forward-looking attitude perseveres and signifies an underlying idealization of the proletarian condition. The revolutionary spirit flows throughout the characters and pervades their entire being. Instead of resulting in a sort of leveling or homogenizing of the characters, this actually serves to accentuate the spontaneous, organic nature of the rebellion. Rebellions and change occur with the only warning being visible in hindsight; therefore, the catalyst is less meaningful, as the event itself creates its own precursors. 

Conclusion

Is this the state of ideology today? Certainly not in regards to the spirit of optimism, which, as the death of the Soviet Union still looms strongly overhead, cannot exist in the same orgiastic manner as it did in the film. The need for optimism, despite the gloom and pessimism of the current conditions following the housing crisis, presents us with an interesting dilemma that is not so easily resolved. The solution ultimately lies in a dialectical synthesis: preserving the entirety of the proletarian condition in the spirit of popular upheaval while still looking unflinchingly toward the future.