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Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is directed by FW Murnau
and stars George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor and Margaret Livingston.
*** A note before I begin the review – this UK Import Blu-Ray
is region-free and will play just fine in any American Blu-Ray
player. ***
On a farm in a rural area, a man and his wife live
with their child and housekeeper. However, their marriage
has fallen into something of a rut, and the man finds himself
falling for a seductive young woman from the city. She begs
him to kill his wife and come to the city with her, but
his emotions get the better of him before he can do the
job. He and his wife end up going to the city together,
where he makes amends with her for his past actions – and
they get to enjoy a number of sites that are completely
foreign to rural folks, including an upscale café, a photography
studio, and an amusement park. ***
While FW Murnau might not be the most widely-remembered
name in classic cinema, his impact on the world of movies
is difficult to deny when you look back. His most famous
film will always be Nosferatu, the classic vampire tale,
but nearly all of his surviving films are hailed as some
of the most important works in film history. Sunrise is
no different and stands as another of his crowning achievements.
Tragically, Murnau’s life was cut short in a car accident
at age 42 in 1931, so he didn’t live to see the level of
success and recognition his later films would achieve. ***
Sunrise is a success on both technical and storytelling
fronts. Murnau came up with a wide variety of camera and
visual techniques to tell his story to the viewer – many
of which would be widely copied by other filmmakers following
the release of the film. Examples include his use of forced
perspective and tracking camera shots. He does what he can
to create the illusion of a bustling city – and succeeds
on nearly every front. ***
Murnau was always known as a very “visual” filmmaker,
and this shows in nearly every picture he created. While
Sunrise (like most silent films) uses intertitles of speech
and narration to help tell the story, these are actually
few and far between, with Murnau telling the good majority
of the story on visuals alone. He keeps it simple throughout
with very basic, relatable characters that don’t have names
outside of who and what they are (the man, his wife, the
woman from the city, etc.) And for the most part, Mureau
succeeds beautifully with this style of storytelling. ***
Sunrise is the first silent film to hit the Blu-Ray
format, and was a worthy release in the “Masters of Cinema”
series. This was a damn good choice for the first silent
movie on Blu-Ray. Over 80 years after its original release,
it stands strong as not only one of the most important films
ever made, but also one of the most enjoyable. ***
This Blu-Ray disc contains two versions of the film
– the original Movietone version filmed at an aspect ratio
of 1.20:1 and a Czech version with English subtitles filmed
at 1.33:1. The Movietone version features the original score,
as well as an alternative score composed by Timothy Brock.
The Czech version had no surviving soundtrack so the remastering
team has adapted the original Movietone score for it. ---
Image and Sound:
Sunrise underwent a heavy restoration for its Blu-Ray
debut, and you’ll be surprised at how good the film looks
in 1080p. A film from the silent era is never going to look
as good as anything from later eras of moviemaking, but
Sunrise looks fantastic all the same. There are the typical
wear marks on the film that are to be expected from a movie
this vintage, but most of the major damage and dirt has
been given a thorough removal. Detail is more impressive
than you would expect from a film of this age. I haven’t
seen any DVD versions of the film, but I can safely say
that this is the best the film has ever looked and likely
every will look. The score is presented in lossless audio
and sounds fantastic, although it does show signs of age
at a few moments. All things considered though, Sunrise
looks and sounds great on Blu-Ray. Now if only we could
get a few other silent classics like this restored in HD!
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