Sunrise - A Song of Two Humans

There are those who rate Sunrise the greatest of all silent films. Then again, some consider it the finest film from any era. Such claims invite a backlash, but do yourself a favor and give it a look. At the very least, you'll know you've seen a movie of extraordinary visual beauty and emotional purity. This universal tale of a farm couple's journey from country to city and back again was the first American film for F.W. Murnau, the German director of Nosferatu and The Last Laugh whose everyday scenes seemed haunted by phantoms and whose most extravagant visions never lost touch with reality. Hollywood afforded him the technical resources to unleash his imagination, and in turn he opened up the power of camera movement and composition for a generation of American filmmakers. You'll never forget the walk in the swamp, the ripples on the lake, the trolley ride from forest to metropolis. This movie defines the cinema. --Richard T. Jameson Amazon.com essential

The art of silent cinema at it's apex

The unfortunate thing about the release of Sunrise in 1927 was that it preceded by weeks the release of The Jazz Singer. So technical innovation trumped artistry, at least in the minds and hearts of the movie going public. Although not a commercial success, Sunrise was a critical success and won several Academy awards in the 1st year they were awarded, including best cinematography, best actress (Janet Gaynor), and most artistic production. After watching a movie like Sunrise you can well understand why Charlie Chaplin was so reluctant to switch from silents to talkies. Sunrise says so much visually, that words are superfluous.

The story itself is quite simple, but the way it is told is not. Many groundbreaking techniques were used in the cinematography and set design. The camera movements, use of light and shadow, and montage effects, anticipated films like Citizen Kane, and influenced the work of directors as diverse as Frank Borzage, John Ford, and Raoul Walsh. But Sunrise is more than just eye candy. Murnau took the German Expressionism he helped perfect in films like Nosferatu to a new level of sophistication. The visuals create mood, and reflect the thoughts and emotions of the characters. There are at least half a dozen episodes in this film that are so astounding visually and emotionally that they send shivers down your spine.

Sunrise is a great parable painted cinematically by a great master. It's a beautiful movie that deserves it's exalted place in the history of film. Do yourself a favor and get this DVD, or watch it the rare times it is shown on TCM. November 21, 2008

Silent Cinema At Its Visual Zenith

In terms of visual quality, German director F.W. Murnau's "Sunrise" (1927) may well be the greatest silent film ever made. Based on Hermann Sudermann's story "The Journey to Tilsit," the plot is relatively simple. A peasant farmer (George O'Brien) becomes involved with a city woman (Margaret Livingston) and is persuaded to murder his wife (Janet Gaynor) - resulting in an intense emotional struggle. Though a Hollywood production, Murnau conveys a distinctly Germanic atmosphere, with superb cinematography by Charles Rosher and Karl Struss. Sadly, Murnau's premature death in 1931 deprived viewers of his enormous potential in the sound era. Like many silent classics, "Sunrise" was critically admired yet a financial failure. During the past few decades, the film has been recognized as a landmark achievement in cinema history. July 11, 2008

Keep and protect her from all harm

This magnificent silent film won the Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Production at the very first Academy Awards. It is worth watching. Some silent films can put you to sleep, not this one, it packs a punch.

Briefly, the story is about a young married couple, that farm near a lake. The husband (George O'Brien) has an affair with a vacationer--"a girl from the city". This woman talks him into drowning his wife, but making it look like an accident. She makes him a bundle of "bulrushes" (lake plants) that, I guess, were the first type of natural life preservers. She explains that he could swim, with this to safety when he overturns the boat. He agrees to all this and heads back to his farm house. The next morning he takes his wife out on the fateful boat trip, but has a change of heart. After he convinces her(Janet Gaynor) not to be afraid of him, the couple have the best time ever and after a night of fun, head back to their home on the their boat. The weather takes a turn for the worst and he ties the "life perserver" to her. The boat indeed overturns and he makes it to shore alone. After a bunch concerned people search the lake for her, they return, believing she drowned. The upset husband retreats to their home. The "other woman" shows up and he gets angry and starts to strangle her only to be stopped by people who found his wife alive---saved by that life perserver his girlfriend made!

This movie was filmed in Big Bear Lake, California in 1927. The scenery was beautiful and very well composed. The picture quality is excellent and well reproduced. The first home I owned was in Big Bear Lake (just sold it last year), and I never saw it that pristine! It's a beautiful mountain lake.

This movie is a must for any collector of old classic films. A good friend passed this gem onto me and I'm glad he informed me of it's credits. July 11, 2008

Learning about a Classic

The other reviewers have well described the movie's plot and many merits. I would only echo what a visual masterpiece this movie is. While the story is as simple as a children's tale, the movie is totally engaging on several levels. This is testament to the genius of the director F.W. Murnau and the movie's photographers.

The settings in this movie do not feel like movie sets, rather they feel like they must be real places, yet they have this strange otherworldly quality that signals some lost time and place. It is a feeling I can only compare to classics of modern sci-fi - like Blade Runner or 2001.

Throughout the movie, I kept watching the inventive cinematography and saying - how did they shoot that scene? There are dozen of examples, but one I would mention as most intriquing was a single continuous shot (it goes on for several minutes)of the George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor characters traveling from the countryside to the city in a tram. I cannot recall ever seeing a continuous shot of this length in moving vehicle in any other movie. The DVD provides the background explanation about the shot, and I found it fascinating.

This brings me to the one extra feature on this edition that I really wish to commend, and that is the commentary by cinematographer John Bailey. Bailey walks you through the entire movie explaining why the sets look the way they do, how most of the shots were done, and why they were done that way. He does an excellent job of explaining what German expressionism was about, and it's influence on Murnau and the film. I found his commentary extremely compelling and it helps to link together the movie you see on the screen with the vision of the director. Interestingly, Bailey admits that modern day cinematographers are still not quite certain how Murnau realized a number of the shots. His commentary was like sitting in on a great film class.

In watching Sunrise, you cannot help but marvel what could be accomplished in movies with just film, a camera, ingenuity and imagination. It is humbling also to consider that 80 years ago, for a dime or two, the public could go see a movie that was both entertaining and high art. You will pay more than that if you want to see this movie now, but it's surely worth it.

Finally, I would note that I purchased this in the 20th Century-Fox Studio Classics Box with How Green Was My Valley, Gentlemen's Agreement, and All About Eve. That is a good deal even if you only like one of the other films.
May 24, 2008

Still packs a punch eighty years later.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F. W. Murnau, 1927)

In the days of Technicolor and high-powered CGI special effects (well, when they're not low-budget CGI special effects), it's sometimes hard to understand how the effects to be found in the earliest films can still be effective. Not so with Sunrise, F. W. Murnau's first Hollywood film, and the only one to ever win the discontinued Oscar for Best Unique and Artistic Film. (A category which, I firmly believe, needs re-instituted.) It's a simple story; a vacationing woman (Margaret Livingston) tempts a farmer (George O'Brien) to kill his wife (Janet Gaynor, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance), leading to a re-examination by the farmer of his marriage, which he had believed had grown stale and loveless. The story, however, is not the reason to watch this; it is, as its Oscar category would imply, a stunning film. Murnau was known for having a strong vision of how a film should look in his head, and then going and inventing new movie technology in order to achieve that vision. There's nothing here as outrageous (for the time) as his invention of what we now know as the Steadicam (which he came up with for 1922's Nosferatu), but there's quite a great deal of camera trickery going on. In addition, the outdoor location shooting is wonderful; the mist in some of the early scenes looks more real here than it does in many modern films (noting, of course, it's probably real in both cases).

As well, this is one of those silent films that makes me wonder why modern movies need so much dialogue. It's obvious what's going on without us ever hearing the characters say a word, and with not a great many titles scattered about. We see more in the crook of an eyebrow than we hear in five minutes of dialogue in most movies.

While it faded into obscurity for decades, a new generation, myself among them, have discovered Sunrise, and it has recently started being routinely included on 100-best-movie lists. Deservedly so, and one thinks that perhaps many modern directors could learn a great deal more from Murnau than they already have. **** March 10, 2008

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