The God/ religious character in the earlier parts of the movie “Battleship Potemkin” is a very interesting symbol. We first see the struggle with religion in the end of the first part where a crew member read the line “Give us this day, our daily bread.” The crew member became enraged with the statement and destroyed the plate. The symbol of bread is an interesting one as it is something very important to the revolutionist. Food scarcity is a real issue and the men were being served rotten meat. Hence the guarantee of bread is portrayed as a lie in the movie to the crew members. The god character is first introduced when the defenseless crew members were going to be shot by the black coats. The god character seemed to go along with the black coats’ decision and almost helped signal a shot with his cross. When the revolt breaks out this same cross is seen to be flung into the ground almost as if it was sharp. Finally when the doctor is being carried away he reaches for the god character who pretends to play dead. These moments and metaphors in my opinion serve to show that the film portrays religion as a friend of the aristocracy. Religion helps with instituted power, seen by the sharp cross. The cross has no need to be sharp unless it is to be viewed as a weapon or something to be afraid of. The most revealing moment with regards to religion is that the god character plays dead when called for. This moment serves to portray religion as a flawed institution, portray god as an aristocratic figure, but a figure that doesn’t help when the going gets rough. Since the movie is a propagandist force for revolution it obviously works to demolish the image of god/religion as that wasn’t supported or like by the socialists. Overall it was very interesting aspect of the movie.
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I see in your observations a pattern of showing ways in which the church disappoints the revolutionaries. “Give us this day, our daily bread,” adorns empty plates. The chaplain attempts to inspire the crew to defect back the tsar, and when fighting erupts, the chaplain plays dead rather than contribute to the mutiny. Likewise, the church appears during the Odessa Streps massacre as a symbol of protection does little to deter the soldiers from their massacre of civilian farmers. I find this outlook explains Eisenstein’s use of Christian imagery despite anti-church messaging. Some ideal still lingers in the church despite it being compromised by the tsar.
Nice job of synthesizing our (very brief, unfortunately!) class discussion with what Colby had written! This is very helpful.
Just a side note: I’m not sure the priest plays dead; it appears that he is struck early in the fighting and knocked unconscious for a period of time.