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Sunrise Movie Review

Sunrise is a 1927 silent romance film directed by F. W. Murnau and starring George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor. It is one of the biggest masterpieces of the silent era.

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“This song of the Man and his Wife

is of no place and every place;

you might hear it anywhere, at any time“

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Sunrise is a story about a fallen man who starts cheating on his wife and even contemplates on killing her until eventually he regains her trust and love again and the two develop an even stronger, loving relationship. The plot is admittedly very simplistic and sometimes melodramatic in a typical 1920s manner, but I like simpler stories and I like melodrama quite a bit so I didn’t mind them.

The story is pretty good in my opinion and I loved how the film is symbolic and lyrical in never naming its characters. That was a fantastic choice. The movie obviously focuses much more on feelings and visuals instead of storytelling and that worked in its favor as silents are the strongest when they have such an approach.

So let’s talk about the characters. Basically we have just three here. The Woman From the City is ridiculously vilified and an archetypal bad woman from the period, but she was portrayed in the vein of Theda Bara’s Vampire from ‘A Fool There Was’ and thus she was delightfully campy and fun. Margaret Livingston played her really well.

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But the standouts are of course The Man and The Wife, both again archetypal but wonderful characters. He is the most complex character here and I loved his personal dilemmas and emotional moments. The performance from George O’Brien is very good and sometimes even admirable, but of course Janet Gaynor steals the show with her deservedly Oscar-winning, powerhouse performance.

They are a lovely couple and incredibly cute as both actors have great looks and a charm to them. This romance is one of the best cinematic romances ever owing in no small part to the great acting performances and particularly terrific character interactions. Their fooling around, joking, bonding and eventually falling in love all over again is indicative of a second honeymoon and so beautiful to witness on screen. They have a wonderful adventure here.

As I said, Sunrise is a visual feast for the eyes owing to amazing cinematography at display. Superimpositions are so well utilized and incredibly advanced, but each shot in the film is gorgeous and simply perfect. The film seems very much modern even today and the boat imagery is iconic as well as the final disaster scenes as well as of course those amazing city sequences. Every shot here honestly is immaculate as are the scenes overall as the film has no unnecessary or rushed moments whatsoever.

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So yes, it is beautifully paced and never at all boring. How could anyone be bored by this beautiful romance is simply beyond my understanding. It is a very short film, clocking in at around ninety minutes, but it is still filled with many great moments and feels epic owing to simple, but still ambitious story in settings and emotion.

F. W. Murnau truly is an iconic director who brought a lot of his German Expressionist touches into this Hollywood film and it shows particularly in that boat scene which is suspenseful and definitely highly influential. His direction truly is outstanding as the film fires on all cylinders and is technically polished across the board. The sound effects are also fantastic, groundbreaking and pretty intriguing.

Sunrise is also great for being tonally incredibly diverse. Certainly it’s dark at times, but it’s also constantly dramatic and highly emotional. I undoubtedly was moved by quite a lot of scenes here with the highlight being the scene where The Man breaks down in tears for what he has done. Amazing stuff. However, it should never be forgotten that this film is also a comedy as evidenced by that wonderful second act in the city with The Barber being particularly funny with his hilarious annoyed facial expressions.

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Sunrise won three Oscars: Best Actress, Cinematography and Best Unique and Artistic Production which is an obsolete category which only existed at the 1st Academy Awards. It entirely deserved all of those Oscars and I am personally counting it as an Oscar winner besides ‘Wings’ and I am in love with that wonderful pairing. Why it lost Art Direction is beyond me and it should have won in the directing category too. But still it was recognized and now still is counted as one of the best silent films ever made and I entirely agree with that assessment.

Sunrise is a tonally diverse film that shifts from dark and dramatic to quite funny to emotional and heartfelt and succeeds in all respects. George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor are wonderful together and this romance truly is one of the best in film history. This masterpiece is superbly directed, gorgeously shot and consistently romantic, moving and engaging leading to what is inarguably one of the standouts of the silent era.

My Rating – 5