IIs ‘Battleship Potemkin’ Effective Propaganda

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nomenon, a conscious combination, and so on) that is known and proven to exercise a definite effect on the attentions and emotions of the audience and that combined with others possesses the characteristic of concentrating the audience’s emotions in any direction dictated by the production’s purpose.’4

It is by this interpretation we can understand that the use of a pre-meditated range of shots can be arranged to achieve its objective of steering the audience into a desired direction. Stimulating the emotions of the directors choice in order to enhance an overall mood and feeling and inspire thought processes on an ‘intellectual level.’5 One of Eisenstein’s desired effects is to direct the audiences’ emotions to that of sympathy towards the crew of the Potemkin while creating an affinity with the citizens of Odessa. The Odessa massacre itself is littered with a number of graphic examples of how Eisenstein manipulates his audience like a puppeteer. Conducting the sequences with orchestral skill, he uses montage to convey the films major political messages with the pure intention of conjuri...