by Daniel White
I want to thank an annoying Facebook film-buff for admonishing me for preferring the majestic Sunrise over the well-made Wings. His insistent provocation that I was mistaken prompted me to watch F. W. Murnau's movie again. Well friends, I'm here to report that the 1927 Fox film is without question a masterpiece, one of the greatest flicks, silent or sound, ever made. And yes, it is better than William Wellman's exercise in expert mechanics. The proof: Murnau's flick brought me to tears, something Wings, with its manipulative sentimentality, was unable to do.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is a deceptively simple story about love. An unsophisticated farmer (George O'Brien), at the urging of his city-bred mistress, attempts to murder his wife (the effective Janet Gaynor). Unable to carry through with the scheme, he follows her to the city, where they reconcile. There they spend the day together, rekindling their feelings for each other. On the return trip home by boat that night, a storm capsizes their tiny vessel, and the man fears his wife is lost. Unfaithfulness, redemption, punishment, salvation and eternal love. Murnau, with the help of his talented cast and superb creative team, explores these complex themes and makes them as timely now as they were then. And, I might add, he tells his tale succinctly. Something the arduously overlong Wings failed to accomplish.
The movie was one of the first to be released with a synchronized musical score, complete with sound effects. The industry was on the brink of catapulting (stumbling?) into the talkies. Sunrise is silent film at its most realized. With Margaret Livingston as the wicked city woman and Charles Rosher and Karl Struss providing lyrical cinematography, Sunrise: A Tale of Two Humans is currently available on YouTube.
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