Review of The Thief of Bagdad (1924) by Michael H — 22 May 2013
3: The special effects and sheer scale of the sets is very impressive. They just don't make them like they used to. There's something about realizing that yes these actually are real sets one is seeing and not computer generated images.
Granted, they are made of things like plywood and cardboard, but they look good enough on this Blu-Ray transfer to pass muster. The wonder and awe that is meant to be inspired by the magical, mythological, fairy tale-like objects and actions is comforting as well.
It seems as if the film was made in a simpler time and certainly for a simpler audience. We are much more sophisticated filmgoers nowadays, so it is always nice to reminded of how things used to be. Fairbanks was certainly an original movie star that was larger than life.
It's rather amusing how much of the film he manages to do with his shirt off, but he must have wanted it that way obviously. This was a United Artists picture after all and he was one of the artist founders (along with his wife Pickford, Chaplin, and D.
W. Griffith). I get the sense that this is the kind of wonder and awe that filmmakers go for now in pictures like John Carter on Mars, but they just can't quite do it. It's a difficult sort of carefree swashbuckling adventuresome tone that seems hard to capture all these years later.
It rings true here, but rarely does in films made today. Miyazaki can do something similar (and actually much superior).
This review of The Thief of Bagdad (1924) was written by Michael H on 22 May 2013.
The Thief of Bagdad has generally received very positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
