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Preview data: all rankings, scores, votes, refresh labels, methodology, testing and editorial-process statements in Top 49 are illustrative demo content, not live measurements or documented reviews.
Rank 173Down 3
#17 in Greatest Films
of 20 ranked entries
Battleship Potemkin
Sergei Eisenstein · 1925
Propaganda, openly, and also the film that proved editing could manufacture emotion from unrelated images. The Odessa Steps has been quoted for a century. Recorded specifics: year 1925, director Sergei Eisenstein, country USSR. Panel highlighted montage theory demonstrated, odessa Steps sequence and enormous technical influence. The reservation on record is its purpose as propaganda is not incidental.
EpicDrama
Score breakdown
How Battleship Potemkin earned 74.6
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on Greatest Films.
- Direction and craftweight 30%
- 72.4
- Critical standingweight 25%
- 73.8
- Influenceweight 25%
- 75.9
- Durabilityweight 20%
- 77.4
On the record
Recorded detail
| Year | 1925 |
|---|---|
| Director | Sergei Eisenstein |
| Country | USSR |
| Runtime | 1h 15m |
| Score | 7.9 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- Montage theory demonstrated
- Odessa Steps sequence
- Enormous technical influence
Where it gives ground
- Its purpose as propaganda is not incidental
1 appearance
Where this entry ranks
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Rank 04Bicycle Thieves
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Non-professional actors, real streets, and a plot that fits in one sentence. Neorealism at its most economical and its most devastating.
91.9/100 Top 49 score—No change
Rank 05Editor’s pickThe Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola · 1972
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90.5/100 Top 49 score4Down 4
Rank 062001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick · 1968
Kubrick spent the final act abandoning narrative entirely and trusted the audience to follow. Effects work done without a computer that has still not been embarrassed by anything since.
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Rank 07Rashomon
Akira Kurosawa · 1950
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Rank 08Editor’s pickVertigo
Alfred Hitchcock · 1958
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Top 49 rankings are editorial. Scores are produced from the published criteria on each list and are refreshed on the cadence stated there. Figures shown across this section are curated demonstration data.