A Play of Light and Shadow: Horror in Silent Cinema
Introduction to the Review Series
Any devotee of horror movies will eventually crawl their way to the classics. A small number will tread through the Universal era of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, finding endearment in their depictions of Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster. Fewer still will explore further back to the silent era, and those that do generally only watch a meager selection of films, notably The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari(1920) and Nosferatu (1922). Most conversations about silent horror cinema begin with these films, yet there are over twenty years of macabre movies that precede them, including feature length offerings beginning in 1913.
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For eighteen years these silent feature films laid the foundation of horror before audiences would actually be able to hear Lugosi in his signature voice utter the lines, “There are far worse things awaiting man than death.” It took filmmakers of the 1930s several years to adjust to the advent of talkies, and in many ways some of the films which preceded them were more ambitious and better crafted. This is mainly because silent filmmakers didn’t need to worry about lugging around heavy sound recording equipment or concern themselves with the noises of the sets. They were artists who could focus purely on their visual aesthetic and tell rich tales of nightmares projected upon screen canvases, their only paints being light and shadow.
In this series of reviews I will dedicate myself to watching every feature length silent horror film I can access from 1913’s The Student of Prague to the dawn of the talkies. Where I am able to I will examine the people who made these films and the part they played in horror movie history, the techniques and focuses of the films and their impact, what these stories meant to contemporary audiences, and what, if anything, these films have to offer a modern audience. On this last point a note should be made about my grading system, which is of course subjective: I am someone who enjoys silent films and I assume the audience for my reviews does so as well. Silent films require more attention from viewers. Often scenes are left to interpretation and the person watching must fill in elements of the narrative with their own logic and imagination. Anyone new to watching movies of this era should be aware that it is hardly a passive experience, though it is, in my opinion, a rewarding one.
I hope that readers will find these reviews helpful, whether in pointing them to unknown selections, finding renewed passion for the movies they already love, or in offering reasons to respect and appreciate the movies of this era, all of which we are extremely fortunate to still be able to enjoy after a century.
Reviews can be found on the site’s pages for 1910-1919 and 1920-1929.
The Revenant 4K
(2015)A man of many adventures, Hugh Glass goes West in 1822 in the employ of Captain Andrew Henry to do some profitable fur trapping. He is attacked by a bear, and badly injured. Miraculously, he survives, but the terrain makes it impossible to carry him back. Henry tries, but eventually hires two mercenaries to simply stand watch and bury him. They abandon Glass, alone and defenseless, but unfortunately for them, he recovers. He resolves to hunt down the men who abandoned him.
For more about The Revenant 4K and the The Revenant 4K Blu-ray release, see the The Revenant 4K Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on April 28, 2016 where this Blu-ray release scored 5.0 out of 5.
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writers: Mark L. Smith,Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio,Tom Hardy,Will Poulter,Domhnall Gleeson,Lukas Haas,Brendan Fletcher
Producers: Steve Golin,Alejandro González Iñárritu,Arnon Milchan,Brett Ratner,James W. Skotchdopole,Paul Green (XVII)
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In 1820s America, frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) joins a pelt-gathering expedition under the direction of Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) in the unsettled wilderness of what are today the Dakotas. The large hunting party, which also includes Glass’ half-Native American teenage son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), disgruntled roughneck John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), and the young and inexperienced Jim Bridger (Will Poulter), are soon attacked by the Arikara Indians. The natives are searching for a female member of their tribe who was kidnapped and abused by a band of hunters, and they kill most of Captain Henry’s outfit. Glass, the most experienced woodsman of the remaining trappers, charts a new course inland to a U.S. fort to avoid further confrontation with the natives -- much to the consternation of Fitzgerald, who’s more concerned about getting paid for this job.
As conditions worsen and food becomes scarce, distrust runs high amongst the group. While hunting alone for sustenance, Glass encounters a mother grizzly bear and her two cubs. The bear defends her clan by ferociously mauling Glass, leaving him with life-threatening wounds and a broken leg. Fitzgerald, Bridger, and Hawk are supposed to stay behind to monitor Glass and give him a proper burial after he dies. Anxious to receive his money and avoid the Arikara, Fitzgerald instead murders Hawk in front of his father and leaves Glass to die, unarmed and without any supplies, in a shallow grave. But Glass survives and seeks revenge against Fitzgerald, pursuing him across the massive, unforgiving land.
The Revenant is immersive, event cinema at its absolute finest. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu and co-writer Mark L. Smith turn a straightforward, revenge-minded Western into a study of the natural world, mortality, and the human condition. Glass is haunted by visions of his late wife, a Native American woman, and is confronted with the crippling emotional toll of Hawk’s murder during his incredible journey of vengeance. Improbable as it may seem, Hugh Glass really did exist, and The Revenant was adapted from Michael Punke’s 2002 nonfiction novel based on the larger-than-life man.
The Revenant Movie Review
The opening attack by the Arikara on Glass and the trappers is directed with such chaotic fervor that it calls to mind Saving Private Ryan. Iñárritu demonstrated his skillful sense of pacing with 2014’s Best Picture winner Birdman, and he again relies on cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki to pull off breathtaking tracking shots. The Revenant bounces seamlessly between moments of extraordinary action and extended sequences of pure human suffering, betrayal, and survival. Not all moviegoers want to see these challenging cinematic exploits on display, but if they do appeal to your sensibilities, The Revenant is a masterpiece of filmmaking.
Likewise, the photography here is a reminder that Lubezki operates in a class of his own. The crushing landscape of the frontier is painted in muted greens and greys, while the spatter of crimson blood on the snow-covered terrain serves as a stark reminder of the unforgiving nature of this environment. Shot using only natural light, Lubezki’s upward-panning shots of the forestry above the characters are so artfully affecting that Terrence Malick would blush. Each snowstorm and river rapid that Glass encounters on his odyssey toward Fitzgerald is a visceral delight.
So much of the press surrounding The Revenant has been focused on DiCaprio’s chances at winning his first Academy Award. He’s never been more committed to a role -- we see him bearded and bloodied, reserved and delirious -- and he delivers a stunning performance. Glass is pushed to the brink of physical and mental anguish, and DiCaprio makes us feel every shred of his pain. He’s matched pace for pace by a fantastic Tom Hardy, as well as proficient work from Gleeson and Poulter.
Iñárritu depicts this singular quest in painstaking, harrowing detail -- Glass is forced to survive by sucking the bone marrow from a skeleton and suturing his wounds with less-than-ideal resources. He’s consumed with revenge, but the harsh reality of the frontier is that these pursuits eventually amount to very little. No character, tribe, or yearning is above falling into moral depravity, and the human truths that Iñárritu probes in The Revenant are as bleak as the plains themselves. Iñárritu asks a lot from audiences who are willing to endure the film’s strife, but the payoff is a picture of both astonishing beauty and grueling agony.
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