Review of Sunrise (1985) by Caroline P — 29 Dec 2015

I didn't want to like this movie. Since I'm still a novice with silent films I had a false perception that physical comedy works better than drama when you have extremely limited dialogue. At the beginning when they were setting up the story I almost gave up and said this wasn't worth my time.

This frustration came despite the fact that they used some really neat transitions with the text to show flashbacks in order to establish the characters' backstory, which displayed creativity I would normally love.

My negative attitude started me on the wrong foot, but I hung on to see what the main characters would do, and somewhere along the way Sunrise won me over. The struggle of this married couple felt so genuine, I understood what was happening in every moment and even what the characters were thinking (impressive because Sunrise had less screens of dialogue than a Chaplin movie.

) About two-thirds of the way through I realized I was hooked and couldn't wait to see how the story would end. It was such a satisfying film, and displayed more real emotion in the performances than I've seen in many modern movies with pages and pages of spoken words.

It did lose its way a little in the middle and spent a bit too long in certain sequences, but because I was invested in the characters at that point it was worth it to see how it all would conclude. Just like any silent film, this isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I managed to connect with the magic, and I think others might enjoy it too.

Luckily, Sunrise is available for free on Youtube, so you can give it a shot and see if you are as entranced as I was without spending a penny.