Battleship Potemkin

Brilliant. I almost forgot it was silent. I became so engrained in the plotline and music, I stopped recognizing the fact that I was reading intertitles. When I did remember that, though, I appreciated the exposition they gave- as opposed to, say, "A Child in the Big City," which was primarily dialogue, with minimal (and sometimes unhelpful) exposition.

One of the first things I noticed was the use of sound effects. When the officer slapped the sailor below deck, and again when the butcher was cutting the meat, it was obvious the clapping/drumming sounds were meant to coincide with the actions. I also noticed the use of zoom. When the maggots on the meat were suddenly shown...blech. The montage was mentioned beforehand, so when the ships duties were portrayed, my thoughts went straight to "oh! montage!" (then I thought of the "Montage" song from the movie Team America: World Police). I also liked the shot of the sailor underwater. I don't know if they did it like the scene in Sunset Blvd- where they placed a mirror in a pool- or just did an aerial shot of a man below water. Either way, I liked it.

I was a little surprised at how graphic the movie got. When the little boy was shot, and people just trampled him, instead of helping him . . .
and then the blood dripping down his head, and his mother(?) getting gunned down when she was trying to help him . . . eesh. Also, from a more naturalistic standpoint, the maggots were graphic. However, they were graphic in a completely different sense . . . like I said, more from the view of Naturalism.

Now, as far as movies influenced by scenes:

I had the pleasure of taking a J-term course last year on "Western Encounters with the South Pacific." Most of the time on the ship, though it was a battleship, reminded me of "Mutiny on the Bounty." The scene that reminded me of it most, though, was when the people from Tahiti are in their canoes and go to meet the Bounty. It seemed a direct parallel of the scene in Potemkin when the smaller boats are bringing supplies to the Battleship Potemkin.

The scene with the baby carriage rolling? One of the Naked Guns, but I forget which one. I think the scene was also duplicated in Ghostbusters II, haha.

-with all these silent films, though, I just keep thinking of a) Singin' in the Rain (because of its showing of the transition to talkies) and b) Sunset Blvd (the silent film actors/actresses like Gloria Swanson, Erich Von Stroheim and Buster Keaton, having to find new lives/careers- pantomime was no longer enough for cinema . . .)