Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

Released: November 4, 1927

Studio: Twentieth Century-Fox

Genre: drama/romance/silent

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: F.W. Murnau

Screenwriting: Carl Mayer

Starring: George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston

Review:

This is “considered a silent movie masterpiece,” ^MSN “an artistic, poignant, brilliantly-filmed, expressionistic, landmark.” ^FS It was actually “the first movie to use synchronized sound-on-film with a musical score.” ^MSN It was overshadowed at the box office because it premiered just days before the release of The Jazz Singer, the first talkie. ^MSN

The screenplay, based on a story by Hermann Suderman, tells a “fable-like story” ^MSN “of redemption and forgiveness.” ^A07 A married farmer (O’Brien) is tempted by “a vampish seductress (Livingston).” ^FS He plans to drown “his pure, innocent wife (Gaynor)” ^FS but “realizes his love for his wife and can’t complete the act.” ^FS

The “attempted murder is only the start; two thirds of the movie is actually about a couple making up.” ^T95 On their way home in the rowboat, “a storm looms up and takes her from him – a seemingly-just punishment from Fate itself.” ^FS “A cavalcade of urban images and horrific storms almost destroy the farmer when he thinks his wife is lost at sea in this expressionistic masterpiece.” ^A07

“The tension is allowed to drop in a glorious jazz-age city sequence, and then twisted into breaking-point as a journey of murderous rage is repeated. But its dreamlike realism is also to be enjoyed: when lovers appear to walk across a crowded city street, into (superimposed) fields, and back to kiss in a traffic jam, you have an example of True Love styled to cinema perfection. Simple, and intense images of unequaled beauty.” ^T95

This is a “triumph of direction, camerawork, art direction, and performances, all hauntingly beautiful.” ^LM “The poetic cinematography by Oscar-winners Karl Struss and Charles Rosher makes Janet Gaynor’s feat in ascending above a thankless role all the more amazing, and puts a definite thrill into George O’Brien’s transformation from homicidal lout to reborn romantic.” ^ML