The cinema : 1952 (1952)

I70 THE CINEMA In exactly the same way, the episode of the revolt on the Potemkin, historically speaking, epitomizes as a theme innumerable events that are highly characteristic of the 'general rehearsal for the October Revolution5. The maggoty meat becomes a symbol of the inhuman conditions prevailing not only in the army and navy, but also among the exploited workers of 'the great army of labour5. The scene on the quarter-deck epitomizes the brutality with which the Czarist regime suppressed every attempted protest, no matter when, where or how it manifested itself. This same scene tells of the movement, equally typical of 1905, which arose among those who had orders to put down the rebels. The refusal to fire at crowds, at the people, at one5s brothers, is a characteristic detail of the situation in 1905. It commemorates the glorious exploits of many army units sent by the reaction against the revolters. The mourning fcu Vakulinchuk is a symbol of the innumerable instances when funerals of victims of the Revolution turned into fiery demonstrations and were used as a pretext for the most brutal reprisals and clashes. The scene at the body of Vakulinchuk expresses the feelings and destinies of those who carried the body of Bauman on their arms through Moscow. But the cases of refusal to fire on crowds were isolated and were drowned in an ocean of human blood. The scene on the stairway epitomizes the Baku slaughter and January 9, when the ' trustful crowd 5 also exulted in the spring air of freedom of 1905 and when this exultation was mercilessly crushed under the heel of the reaction ... as when a wild mob of Black-Hundred pogrom makers set fire to the Tomsk theatre during a meeting. And finally, the end of the picture, with the victorious passage of the armoured cruiser through the Admiralty squadron, closing the events of the film on a triumphant