Battleship Potemkin

Battleship Potemkin Броненосец «Потёмкин» DVD Cover Country Soviet Union Directed by Sergei Eisenstein Release Date 1925 Language Russian Studio Goskino Main Cast Character Actor Grigory Vakulinchuk Aleksandr Antonov Commander Golikov Vladimir Barsky Chief Officer Giliarovsky Grigori Aleksandrov

Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin) is a 1925 silent film by Sergei Eisenstein dramatizing the 1905 mutiny aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin. Feared in the past for its potency as a propaganda tool, it was named the greatest film ever made as early as 1958, and has still maintained a place in lists of the greatest movies ever made even today. Hailed by German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as "a marvelous film without equal in the cinema ... anyone who had no firm political conviction could become a Bolshevik after seeing the film," its influence on modern film making is still felt today, from period dramas like The Untouchables, to science fiction like Star Wars.

Battleship Potemkin, as befitting its status as a propaganda tool, is now in the public domain, available for download in some parts of the world.

The following guns were used in the film Battleship Potemkin (1925):

Mosin Nagant 1891

Russian sailors on board the Potemkin and the soldiers on shore are armed with Mosin Nagant 1891 rifles. Many of the rifles in this film have bayonets fixed, and indeed rifles in the ship's small arms locker are stored with bayonets fixed.

Full-length, Russian Mosin Nagant M91 - 7.62x54mmR. The rifles in the film are original M1891 rifles, since the film is set and was filmed prior to 1930.

Russian marines line up to shoot the mutineers.

Mosin Nagant rifles in the small arms locker, bayonets already affixed.

The army fires upon unarmed civilians during the famous "Odessa Steps" sequence.

Steyr Mannlicher M1895

Chief Officer Giliarovsky (Grigori Aleksandrov) uses a Steyr Mannlicher Rifle during the mutiny. The use of the Mannlicher by the Russian Navy is incorrect, although the filmmakers may have used Austro-Hungarian rifles captured during the Great War.

Original Austro-Hungarian Steyr Mannlicher M1895 - 8x50mmR Mannlicher

Chief Officer Giliarovsky (Grigori Aleksandrov) takes aim at Grigory Vakulinchuk.

FN Model 1900

One officer defends himself with an FN Model 1900 pistol. He is then quickly overwhelmed and beaten.

FN Model 1900, .32 ACP

The FN Model 1900 lying on the piano as the officer scrambles on top of it. That is the officer's foot at the top about to crush the candlesticks.