The Most Convincing Propogandist

At the turn of the 20th century, when film production was beginning to become more accessible to people around the world, an artistic revolution was in the making. Filmmakers everywhere had begun experimenting with their camera angles, focus points, films lengths and so forth. However, during an era in which political unrest was prevalent throughout many different areas of the world, a filmmaker's artistic freedom and occasionally abilities were haltered. Many Russian films that were created during this period undoubtedly epitomize the artistic limitation of filmmakers. A restraint was implemented on the filmmakers in order to inspire them to create propagandist films with hope of igniting a means of positive political activism. Propaganda reflecting Russia's political state during the early 20th century is extremely prevalent within the films of Sergei Eisenstein. More specifically, Eisenstein's films, Battleship Potemkin and October ideally exemplify the use of propaganda through certain manipulations to the content and form of the films, in relation to the real-life historical facts to which they are based on. Battleship Potemkin portrays to its viewers a superlative example of a propaganda film. Through its modifications of historical facts, like that in the Odessa staircase sequence as well as the simple yet volatile depictions of Tsarist soldiers, viewers of the film during the era of its release found much that they could relate too and unite towards. Similarly, the film, October, presented a bias political viewpoint in which the majority of viewers at the time associated themselves with. The tearing down of the statue during the opening scene of the film, as well as many other implied symbolic episodes in