8.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A young farmer is tempted by the charms of a sophisticated city woman, who suggests to him that his dull wife might accidentally drown. He considers this plan, and imagines what his life might be like if he went to the big bad city.
Starring: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing, J. Farrell MacDonaldDrama | 100% |
Romance | 36% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.2:1, 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.2:1, 1.33:1
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
Music: Dolby Digital 2.0
English, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
There’s a peculiar form of chauvinism (in the original meaning of that word) that often attends even the most rabid film fan when it comes to the subject of silents. Many film lovers tend to dismiss silents as some sort of monolithic (almost inchoate) entity that exists as an inseparable unit, a category that is at least at times dismissed for its perceived technical limitations and storytelling shortcomings. Anyone who might feel this way (and you certainly don’t need to admit it here) might want to take just an hour and a half or so out of their day to watch Sunrise, certainly one of the most astounding films in the entire annals of cinema, let alone the silent era. Is the story somewhat hackneyed? That I’ll give you, for the basic plot tells the hoary story of a man torn between his saintly wife and the ever notorious “other woman”. But in virtually every other way, Sunrise is nothing less than a minor (and maybe even a major) miracle. Luminously shot by the legendary Karl Struss and Charles Rosher, directed by the equally legendary F.W. Murnau, and expertly performed by Janet Gaynor, George O’Brien and Margaret Livingston, Sunrise is one of the most technically proficient films of all time, something made all the more astounding with the realization that it truly was made at the dawn of the sound age. Among Sunrise’s singular achievements are a glut of then very tricky effects shots (all done in camera), equally hard to achieve tracking shots, and an actual early soundtrack presented via Fox’s then revolutionary Movietone system (there’s no dialogue here, only a score and occasional sound effects). But perhaps just as important as any of these undeniably important accomplishments is the overall mood of the piece, a heady mix of the sacred and profane, of love and lust and all the emotions that tend to inflame human passions to their breaking point. There’s also a fascinating dialectic in the film between Murnau’s Expressionistic tendencies and a more realistic (albeit glamorously “Hollywood”) depiction of a marriage on the rocks.
Note: Screenshots 1-10 are from the Movietone Version of Sunrise, while screenshots 11-19 are from the
Czech Version of the film.
Sunrise is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with AVC encoded 1080p
transfers in 1.20:1 (Movietone Version) and 1.34:1 (Czech Version). This release unfortunately comes with no
supplementary notes in an insert booklet, though I have to assume that this was sourced from the same 2008 HD telecine
masters Fox prepared for both the 2003 restored Movietone version and the then recently discovered Czech version. I have
the Masters of Cinema edition of this title, and for all intents and purposes, the image quality here is virtually identical,
though personally I prefer the Masters of Cinema's contrast on the Movietone version to the Fox release (even a cursory
glance at the screenshots on this review show that—to my eyes, anyway—the contrast on the Czech version is nominally
superior to the Movietone version). (A completely non-scientific comparison of bitrates points toward basically the same on
the Movietone version with a slightly higher rate on the Czech version when compared to the Masters of Cinema release.)
Image depth and stability are excellent in both versions of the film on this release, though persnickety videophiles
should be aware that not all damage was (or probably could be) totally ameliorated. The Movietone version has
somewhat less obvious scratching and the like, but overall I'd say the Czech version is marginally more precise looking. As
with the Masters of Cinema release (which was after all prepared from Fox masters), there are no signs of egregious digital
tampering with the image, whether that be overt grain manipulation/removal or sharpening.
Fox's Sunrise release parts ways from the Masters of Cinema release by offering the original Movietone score in DTS- HD Master Audio Mono and the more newly commissioned Olympic Chamber Orchestra score offered (rather mind bogglingly, in my not so humble opinion) in Dolby Digital 2.0. The original Movietone score has inherent limitations, but sounds remarkably full bodied, given reasonable expectations. The newer score is much different feel, and music lovers should certainly check it out for the varying moods it conveys, but why Fox chose a lossy format here is beyond my personal ken.
Most, but not quite all, of the supplements that made the Masters of Cinema release of Sunrise so excellent have matriculated over to this stateside release.
There's absolutely no question that Sunrise belongs in every serious film collector's library. The good news here is that there are actually two very respectable releases available. The Masters of Cinema release is region free and contains a great booklet and a longish featurette on Murnau's 4 Devils which this release omits. That said, this has virtually everything the Masters of Cinema release does and is certainly priced well enough, though the lossy audio on the newer score may be a deal breaker for audiophiles at least, if not for the general public. Normally I'd give a release like this an unqualified Highly recommended, but considering the competition given by the Masters of Cinema release, I'm slightly downgrading this to Recommended.
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