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Reviews
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
THE Anti-War Message Film
Technically advanced by the looks of it. The camera swoops above the trenches and below people's knees, unlike the films released before this where the camera was mostly stagnant. The unpolished black and white imagery looks as if I'm looking at actual newsreels of WWI battle. Interesting thing: there's no background music here. It's either silence or the sound of constant bombardment. The acting is fantastic. Perhaps not as natural as it is in today's movies but the important thing is that the performances fit the overall texture of the film. Every soldier is fleshed out. I didn't feel that swell of emotion I was hoping for but there are images that stayed with me long after the sign read THE END. Images like a soldier's disembodied hands hanging from wire, Lew Ayres making a speech to the next generation of soldiers, and him reaching for the butterfly at the end. Brilliant.
The Gold Rush (1925)
One of the Greatest Silent Comedies
What a delightful film. I can see the imagination bursting on the screen in riches. Each scene contains surprises and bits of magic. I love how the film shows visually that the liquid is alcohol and how the cabin ended up on the edge of a cliff. This masterpiece is not just a comedy but there are parts that make me laugh just thinking about them, like the eating shoe scene, fighting over rifle while Chaplin tries to hide from gun, and when the cabin is tipping over the cliff scene. When the Lone Prospector finds Georgia the film unveils some truly touching dramatic moments. I love the image of Chaplin standing still outside his open door listening to the crowd on New Year's Eve knowing that he was stood-up. I genuinely felt for him. Chaplin is a auteur who can make me laugh and cry at the same time. Brilliant.
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The Birth of Modern Film-making
I can't believe I sat through a silent, black & white, three-hour long epic from 1915. I felt as though I was peering through a time-capsule at a far distant past. The content troubled me, seeing blacks portrayed as weird, predatory, and primitive, attacking innocent and helpless white women and children. The film makes the audience root for the Ku Klux Klan because they're portrayed as heroic. I almost began cheering them on too and felt guilty in doing so. It felt like racist propaganda. But it's fascinating how a film has complete control over its audience simply by how the director paints a scene. The music, the silent acting, lavish detail all helped generate emotion and as a result I was glued to the screen. Brilliant.