8. The Battleship Potemkin (1927)
Generally when the most "important" movies of all time are discussed, three films stand out above the rest. One is The Birth of a Nation, another is Citizen Kane, and the third is Battleship Potemkin. No other films approach the overall innovation of these three films, which collectively helped more than any others to establish the language of cinema. The Battleship Potemkin is a propaganda film that shows a stylized version of a 1905 mutiny aboard a Russian battleship and upon its release, it revolutionized filmmaking. Director Sergie Eisenstein was one of the earliest film theorists and he developed his own style of editing that used juxtaposing images in a montage in order to create an emotional response. The famous Odessa Step sequence, the most impressive example of Eisenstien's montage, is one of the most copied and parodied in film history. Although dated now, The impact of Battleship Potemkin is nearly unrivaled in the history of film. Even a list of movies that simply copied the Odessa steps sequence is fairly long and includes movies as prominent as The Untouchables, Brazil, and Star Wars Episode III. Its use of montage changed the way films were edited, and its influence on filmmakers has been nearly unparalleled.