Popular reviews

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  Review by cassandra ★★★½ 4

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Mood: sobbing while eating bread next to my husband who just tried to murder me five minutes ago to live with the City girl he's been cheating on me with

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  Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★★½ 4

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  88/100

  What a truly odd structure this film has. In theory, it should end at roughly the midpoint, following the scene in the church—everything is resolved, both narratively and emotionally, once the Man essentially renews his vows by proxy. Instead, the second half depicts one glorious night in the couple's happily ever after, followed by a climactic crisis that not only isn't directly related (except symbolically) to the Man's prior faithlessness, but concludes with the Woman being ironically saved by his careful preparations for same. It shouldn't work at all, and if I force myself to take a few steps back, it really doesn't, gestalt-wise. (Hence the missing half-star.) Hard to focus on the big picture, though, when the actual…

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  Review by aleph beth null ★½ 16

  watching this immediately after le bonheur sure was a trip. i’m convinced murnau thought of this as humanist but it comes across as resoundingly opposed—premeditated acts of domestic violence are easily forgiven and brushed over by people everywhere! wow. it’s… the circle of life?

  i mean. the man buries his sobbing face in the woman’s lap and she reassures him with every maternal image possible and she gives and gives and gives of herself… i don’t know. i was sobbing by the midpoint reconciliation not in relief but in sheer terror for her safety. apologies, even desperately tearful ones, change nothing. the man actually CUTS ANOTHER PERSON in the coffee shop for flirting with his wife. he tried to choke…

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  Review by Dirk Diggler ★★★★½ 7

  This film is 90 years old, yet such a beautiful and powerful film, an extraordinary technical achievement, and for me another proof that time has no bearing on quality. The tracking shot of them walking down the street, actually in the middle of the road with cars all over, and the city setting turning into a country side landscape and then back again into the city was just so stunning and remarkable. Timeless.

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  Review by 👽 Zara 👽 ★★★½ 3

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  margaret livingston be like i’m bored murder your wife

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  Review by Dragonknight ★★★★★ 12

  Film #1 of Gustav's Recommendations

  ” This song of the Man and his Wife is of no place and every place; you might hear it anywhere, at any time. For wherever the sun rises and sets, in the city's turmoil or under the open sky on the farm, life is much the same; sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet.”

  It may be 87 years old but F.W. Murnau’s spellbinding and delightful masterpiece possesses an unbelievable quality and a fine and modern artistic vision which proves that silent cinema doesn't just belong to the past but it may be the ultimate way of reflecting the deepest emotions of human beings, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is the definition of perfect artistic work,…

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  Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★ 4

  "Another distinguished specialist was F.W. Murnau....he made Sunrise in Hollywood, which then turned thumbs down on him in conformity with its antagonism to all those who ventured to test the realm of poetry and beauty when not leavened with questionable taste." - Josef von Sternberg

  It's always a surprise revisiting this movie, because it's canonization seems all the more odd. It's a complete tone poem, totally surreal. I remember reading about this movie when I was about 9 or 10, totally obsessed with silent movies at the time but unable to obtain or even find a VHS copy of it because none had officially been released! It was 2002 when this movie finally arrived in a home media format, but…

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  Review by liam f ★★★★

  imagine making a film so out of this world that you actually have to clarify that the characters are human in the title

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  Review by nick ★★★★½

  Not a big silent movie fan, but the greatness of F. W. Murnau's Sunrise disarmed me of any preexisting judgment. It's able to convey tremendous emotion even with the absence of dialogues, and the visual excellence alone is astonishing enough to dive in.

  The genreless nature of Sunrise is the biggest surprise for me. It evolves from a bitter love triangle drama, to a thriller, then immediately to an extended screwball comedy, and finally gets back to its romance roots, yet every twist and turn feels authentic and natural.

  On top of an engrossing plot, the two leads were simply phenomenal as the "Two Humans" caught in the cruelty of life striving for a lifeline. It's emotionally resonating because the characters are far from perfect, but Murnau opted to always look at the bright side of humanity even when it can be so damn hard to do so. Highly recommended.

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  Review by eely ★★★★

  gillian flynn watched this and said “yeah i’m gonna do all of that except the exact opposite” and then wrote gone girl

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  Review by phoebe 💫 ★★★★½ 1

  Janet Gaynor spends the whole day feeding chickens, crying, dancing, and trying not to get murdered, drinks ONE glass of wine and gets life-threateningly drunk because the only thing she’s eaten that day is one bite of bread while crying and that’s the vibe of today

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  Review by Evan T ★★★★½ 4

  Vague hints of German Expressionism peppered over domestic drama, the tedium of marriage reconciled once faced with the prospect of loss. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is a nocturnal fairground of frightful twists and turns, its towering set pieces and timeless visual technique dripping with effortless style. George O’Brien’s lurking presence practically resurrects the image of Nosferatu, Janet Gaynor’s hysterical fear furthering the scare-factor. More than ninety-three years old and still immeasurable in its ability to surprise, Sunrise is surely silent film at its most vivid and powerful. A rip-roaring, thundering classic, demons of the night slowly dissolving into the light of day.