Chapaev

I think one of the main reasons this film succeeded was because it made more sense. Even though the people already knew how the story was going to end, it is always enjoyable to go and see what led up to that specific ending.There was a storyline with characters that the people could relate to. You actually got to learn about Chapaev, Furmanov, Petka, Anka, and even Colonel Borozdin. I also think the fact that there was a woman helping in the fight would have appealed to women to go and see the film. Battleship Potemkin only had male characters. That could have caused less women to go to the showing of it. But Chapaev had Anka be a heroine of the story. She was a woman that was complemented and accepted for being able to shot well. The romance between Petka and Anka gave it a little more emotion. People could connect better with them and they wanted them to be together.
The sound in the film made it more interesting. You could hear the guns firing. That creates more excitement for viewers. Also I think the singing added an extra effect. When Petka would start singing by himself you could notice the individual but eventually all the others would join in with him and you could see the singing bonding them together making them stronger as a group. This was similar to what Eisenstein tried portraying in Battleship Potemkin but it was not as strong. Also the singing brought certain characters together. When Chapaev is up working on the maps of the battle, Petka wakes to his singing. He asks Chapaev if he had slept and he says he does and continues to sing. Then Petka starts singing with him and when the song is done, Chapaev yells at Petka to go back to bed. You can see that he cares about people. He is more human than the characters of Battleship Potemkin.
This film could also have made it because there was actual fighting between the Reds and Whites. I know someone mentioned that they had wanted to see a fight in Battleship Potemkin. There was no actual fighting. There were poor people running in terror and dying for just waving to the ship off the coast. In Chapaev, there was fighting. If a movie is based on a war, then there should be battle scenes. It just makes sense.