Political propaganda is never a simply stated commercial applied to politics. It is instead an organized explanation that is extremely necessary to win the support of a specific group of people that associate themselves with the ideas being expressed. Propaganda is useful in drawing out emotions that people try to hide, but more importantly it can be hidden in many forms. Propaganda is especially powerful when utilized in film, because the visual image helps to shape the viewers’ mind.
The film Battleship Potemkin uses a rapid succession of images in the form of montage to successfully convey a connection between political motive and aesthetic images. Within the film lie several political motives, all of which must be conveyed to the audience by combining several dramatic camera shots due to the fact the film has no formal dialogue between the actors. This montage is specifically crafted to draw the viewer into the film and leave them with heightened emotions about the pol
Eisenstein used montage as a thought process, which raised conflicts that needed to be resolved. The first conflict immerges when the sailors on the battleship complain about the quality of the meat they have been eating. The viewer sees camera shots of angry, disheveled men combined with clips of large slabs of meat infested with maggots. The viewer is disgusted and once again sympathizes with the sailors. The resolution to this conflict would seemingly be to discard the old meat, however due to the political nature of the film, the solution is inevitably found when the ships doctor tells the sailors the meat is suitable to eat.
Through the manipulation of images, Battleship Potemkin was able to convey clear messages in order to strengthen a viewer's political opinion in revolutionary politics. In the famous Odessa Steps scene, czarist troops march down a long flight of steps, firing on the citizens who flee from them. Numerous innocent people are killed in th
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