Review of Sunrise (82)

Sunrise is one of the few movies on the list that is not available through Netflix.  In fact, the DVD is so hard to come by we started looking for it on eBay back in August.  Luckily we found a couple of copies of it and won an auction after a couple of failed attempts.

Plot
In this silent film masterpiece, an evil temptress from the city bewitches a married farmer.  She then convinces the farmer to murder his neglected wife and proposes a boating accident to cover it up.

Jason’s Thoughts
Before watching Sunrise, I had only seen a few silent films, most of which have starred Charlie Chaplin.  The only other silent movie I can remember watching is Nosferatu, which coincidently is written and directed by the same person who made Sunrise, F.W. Murnau.  Unlike the others, though, this one has been billed as the best silent film of all time.  After viewing it, I can see why that claim was made.

Sunrise is a simple story that is surprisingly easy to follow granted that there is no talking and sparsely uses title cards to explain what is happening.  The story really unfolds just by watching the actors act and the listening to overall tone and feel of the music.  Being simple isn’t necessarily bad either as this movie runs the gamut of genres – at times it can be funny, or sad, or thrilling, or romantic.  Whatever mood it is trying to convey, it does it with great acting, music and camera work.

Another point that impressed me with Sunrise was its use of special effects and editing.  This movie was released in 1927 and there were a few parts during the movie that used a ghost effect with the evil temptress hanging on or around the farmer trying to entice him.  I was surprised to actually see a technique like that used in a movie from this time period.  I don’t think I have ever seen anything like that in any of the other movies from the 1930’s that we have watched yet.

All in all, Sunrise is a fun movie to watch and I am hoping the other five silent films on the list are as great as this one.

Crystal’s Thoughts
I was pretty concerned when I seen this movie coming up on the list.   Why?  Well, once again, it’s one of those oldies, but on top of that, it's silent!  I am sure my eyebrows rose as Jason put it in and said, "You know this one is silent, right?"  Turns out the old saying not to judge a book (or DVD) by its cover proved itself true again.  I really enjoyed this movie!  Even in being from decades ago, I felt the camera work was a lot better than usual, especially since when the scenes were switched, it was done with good timing in which it wasn't as noticeable.  I appreciated that.

The movie itself also has a wonderful story line.  I was amazed that with only a handful of words (written on the screen, hence silent film), I was able to follow the movie easily.  It also held my interest throughout.  No ADD this time around.  Jason and I chose to watch it with music playing in the background, which I am not sure has been an addition since it first came out or created like that, but I think this helped.  I think we are a society today that needs some kind of background noise (guilty party here, I can be found many times with the television set on but not paying attention).  All in all, this was a great flick, and it made me look forward to the other silent ones on the list.

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