Film review: October (1928) ***1/2

“Peace, Land and Bread,” reads the Bolshevik slogan, pivotal in Sergei Eisenstein’s October (1928). The director visited these themes in 1925’s Battleship Potemkin and, despite moving the setting forward twelve years from 1905 to 1917, October suggests that little has changed. The similarities should not come as a surprise. It was due to Potemkin’s international success and representation of Soviet ideals that Eisenstein was commissioned by the Russian government to make this film; a 10^th Anniversary celebration of 1917’s October Revolution. What we see here then is a continued development of the director’s prior work, both in terms of the historical events shown and the methods employed to portray them.

Through his pioneering use of montage, Eisenstein juxtaposes shots in attempt to evoke an intellectual response. In one set-piece depicting the suppression of an anti-government protest, furiously paced cuts between the barrel of a machine-gun and the gunner’s manically smiling face are suggestive not only of the sound and workings of the gun itself, but also of the casual immorality of the establishment forces. As a series of bridges are raised to quell the resulting chaos by separating the workers’ district from the city, Eisenstein contrasts striking shots of a slain horse - hanging over the edge of a slowly rising bridge - with the image of a sphinx-like Egyptian statue. These images, unconnected on the surface, invite the audience to draw similarities with another society that was reliant upon, but wholly mistreated, its working class.

Expertly executed as such sequences are, the film often lacks the tension required to be suggestive of an imminent uprising. As a result, when the remarkable scenes do occur, they seem all too brief, none proving as enduringly memorable as Potemkin’s oft-referenced Odessa steps sequence. It is perhaps for these reasons that the film has never quite matched the acclaim of its predecessor, yet - despite this - October remains a landmark in the artistry of Eisenstein’s technique.