Deliberately written as a revolutionary propaganda film, Eisenstein used this film to test his theories of "montage". The revolutionary Russian filmmakers of the Kuleshov school of filmmaking were experimenting with the effect of movies on the audience, and Eisenstein edited the film in a way that would produce the greatest emotional response, so that the viewer would feel sympathy for the rebellious sailors of the battleship and hatred for their cruel overlords. In the manner of most propaganda, the story was written in a very simplistic fashion, so that the audience could clearly see whom they could sympathize with.

Eisenstein's experiment was a success. was a hit with Russian audiences, and it was released in limited venues around the world, where audiences responded positively. Although, in both Russia and overseas, the movie also shocked audiences not because of its policial statements, but because its use of violence, which was considered graphic by the standards of the time. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels called "a marvellous film without equal in the cinema ... anyone who had no firm political conviction could become a Bolshevik after seeing the film." [1]

The film was composed of five episodes: "People and Worms" (Люди и черви), "Drama at a Tender" (Драма на тендре), "The Dead is Appealing" (Мёртвый взывает), "The Odessa Steps" (Одесская лестница), and "the rendez-vous with a Squadron" (Встреча с эскадрой).

The most famous scene from the movie is the massacre on the Odessa Steps, where ruthless Tsarist soldiers march down a seemingly endless flight of stairs in a rhythmic, machine-like fashion, slaughtering a crowd of innocents as they attempt to flee down the stairs before the soldiers reach them. The scene was perhaps the best example of Eisenstein's theory on montage, and ironically may have influenced many of Leni Riefenstahl's similar images in . It has been endlessly referenced in many motion pictures, with famous homages occurring in Francis Ford Coppola's

After its premiere in Russia, it was later shown in a edited form in Germany, with some scenes of extreme violence edited out by its German distributors. A written introduction by Leon Trotsky was also cut from Russian prints by the Soviets after he ran afoul of Josef Stalin. The film was banned under the Nazis in Germany. It would also be banned at one time under the British and French for its revolutionary zeal.

In 2004, a three year restoration of the film was completed. Many excised scenes of violence were restored, as well as the original written introduction by Leon Trotsky. The previous titles, which had toned down the mutinous sailors' revolutionary rhetoric, were corrected so that they would now be an accurate translation of the original Russian titles in the film.

The original score was composed by Edmund Meisel. A salon orchestra performed the Berlin premiere in 1926; its instrumentation was flutepiccolo, trumpet, trombone, harmonium, percussion and strings without viola. Meisel wrote the score in twelve days and nights due to the late approval from the censorship board. Due to this problem, Meisel would repeat large sections of the score, unchanged, in an effort to complete the project. Composerconductor Mark-Andreas Schlingensiepen has reorchestrated and improved the score based on the original piano score and has adjusted it to fit the reconstructed version of the movie available today.

In its commercial format (on DVD, for example) the film is usually accompanied by pieces of classical music that have been subsequently added. In an attempt to make the film relevant for the 21st century, Pet Shop Boys composed a new soundtrack in 2004, accompanied by the Dresdner Sinfoniker orchestra. Their soundtrack, released as