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Reviews
The Mark of Zorro (1920)
What a fun!
This is the first film I watch starring Douglas Fairbnaks, after reading about this so great movie star for a long time and now I understand why he was so great. His impersonation of both Don Diego and Zorro is really good for the acting of the time: he has amazing body control - as he did all of his stunts! - and enormous charisma. It's impossible to not like him as Zorro and to feel a little bit sorry for him as Don Diego, The actors are all nice as well. And, although the Mexican characters are really stereotyped, what would make people nowadays think it's prejudice - and probably is - everyone is stereotyped since it was common in those times to not get really deep into characters. The goal was only to enterntain and what a fun this film is!
Another amazing thing is the cinematography. I'm really not sure if it was common to change light colors for films in 1920, but I thought it really ceative to put a blue light for night scenes, an orange light for interior scenes, and an yellow/green light for exterior scenes. The art direction and the costume design are perfect! It's possible to see it was a big production for the time and for sure it was worth it.
The Message (1976)
A very didactic movie abou the history of Islam
I wanted to see this movie because I'm interested now in the history of Islam, altough I'm a Christian. And for me, a person who knows almost nothing about the religion, it is amazing how this film makes it easy to understand not only the history of how Islan began but the principles of religion as well. As an introduction to Islamism, to anyone who wants to understand it, it's great and for Christian people I believe they will see many, many parallels with our religion's history as well.
Apart from that, the movie itself is really good. What amazed me most is that it is not boring and flows really well and fast, even though it is almost 3 hours long. The score is beautiful and Anthony Quinn's and Irene Pappás' performances are both great. The battle scenes on the desert are really nice and great for us to understand how were tribes battles in those times, since the Bible narrates a lot of them too.
However, there is one thing I didn't like very much in this film: the director's choice of representing Muhammad (he cannot be represented because Islamic religion forbids it), sometimes as if the camera was him and other times we only hear about him. It is a bit confusing in technical and narrative terms; he shoul've chosen a specific way to represent Muhammad and have stick to it.
Apart from that the film is really worth it, as an entertainment and as a historical and didactic picture about early Islam.
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920)
The first horror filme ever made
This film is amazing in every aspect! The cinematography, the storyline, the acting, the art direction, the plot twist, everything! It is really a masterpiece and it's of utmost importance to History itself, not only Germany's history, but the world history, since this is the first horror movie made - and a psychological one - as a way for the German people to express their traumas after World War I.
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The film is boring, but the technic is really incredible
I've watched this movie some years ago and, oh, Lord, how tiresome it was to watch it. Not only because of its extremely racial prejudice, but also because it's such a long film and mute films are better shorter.
But praise D.W. Griffith for his many innovations brought in this movie. The technical part is really amazing if we think the film was released in 1915!