Seen: June 2nd, 2007
Format: DVD
Rating: 4
I was rummaging around to fulfill a request and found this. I thought it would be an interesting film to juxtapose the modern one against and decided to give it a go.
I wasn't all that impressed.
This is a silent film. I'm not as well versed in Silent Film as I should be. They tend to have a flavor of their own.
Film acting at this point was hardly a refined craft. My assumption is that most performers came from the stage at this point. Their gestures and emoting tends to be large and overplayed. This may be due to both the overcompensating for the lack of sound needed to convey the intent, and from the tendency to "play to the back row".
For whatever reason, the acting here is overblown at times. There is an inconsistency between the acting styles of various actors that's very disjoint. It tends to vary both between actors and from the same actor from scene to scene. It may be that at this time the actors and director were struggling with changing the way characters were portrayed.
In addition, the intertitles here are sparse. It seems were expected to pick up the vast majority of the dialog through the acting and lip reading. I could have done with a little more explicit exposition. Perhaps the film makers expected a little more familiarity with the classic tale.
There's one scene in the film, as a Indian approaches a woman with a child, that actually creates tension via it's editing. The shot cuts back and forth between the woman and her stalker, creating a sense of tension that we new take for granted.
There is also two scenes toward the end of the film where we shift point of view while Cora is in danger and as Magua tries to escape. These are interesting as well.
There are some interesting action moments here as well. There is some violence depicted, especially involving children, that surprised me. There are some choreographed fight sequences and dramatic falls that are again surprising to me.
The rest of the scenes are generally one shot "stages", with little dynamic tension. The action sequences involving crowds tend to be chaotic and difficult to follow.
The settings seem out of place to the story. Near the end we see a confrontation in a huge, steep valley reminiscent of Yosemite. The fort seems situated in rolling plain. These seem incongruous with the Eastern setting of the film.
The other problem here is the presentation. This film has been selected to the National Film Registry. The version I saw has been "restored" and copyrighted by Lumivision and the International Museum of Photography.
A new score has been written and recorded that varies from excellent to obnoxious. It is very distracting at times. The importance of the score in silents can't be overemphasized, and this one is often a problem.
In addition, the scenes have all been tinted, ostensibly to help reflect the environment where the scened occur. Scenes that should be in low light are purplish, those outdoors in daylight are sepia. I assume the intent here is to give visual cues about the environment to a modern audience. I found it very distracting.
So what, then? If nothing else, this film makes me think about how film making has changed in many different aspects. I wouldn't bother with it unless you're very interested in film from a production or artistic perspective.
The Good: Editing
The Bad: Score and Colorization
The Ugly: Characterization of Indians
2 comments:
The movie hasn't been colorized. This is the original color of the film. The use of tinted film dates back to the early days, and a number a great features from the 1910s make important use of color tinting to depict not only environmental lighting, but also changes in mood or characters.
Well, I never said it was colorized, for several different reasons. I realize that early B/W films were often tinted. But I'm fairly certain that the tinting was changed for this release (along with the music). Regardless, I find the tinting IN THIS PARTICULAR FILM poorly done and distracting.
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