Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

Composite Score: 83.9

Starring: George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing, J. Farrell MacDonald, Ralph Sipperly, Jane Winton, Arthur Housman, and Eddie Boland

Director: F.W. Murnau

Writer: Carl Mayer

Genres: Drama, Romance

MPAA Rating: Passed

Box Office: $121,107 worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is the 1927 silent film adaptation of Hermann Sudermann’s short story “The Excursion to Tilsit” about a farmer whose mistress from the city tries to get him to murder his wife, sell his farm, and move to the city with her. The film follows the unnamed farmer (George O’Brien) as he struggles with the decision to stay with the woman from the city (Margaret Livingston) and murder his wife (Janet Gaynor) or dismiss the woman from the city and stay with his wife. It props itself up as a universal story in its opening title cards, and the story it tells of choosing between seeking new pleasures or finding the lost pleasure of your present situation is a strikingly moving scenario if nothing else. The film was nominated for Best Art Direction at the first Academy Awards and won the first Oscars for Cinematography and Best Actress (Gaynor) and the only Oscar ever awarded for Best Unique and Artistic Picture. It remains a classic example of silent cinema with a compelling story, excellent production design, and strong performances.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                There are some powerful early-20th-century morals at work in the story of Sunrise that don’t fully hold up under a modern microscope. Most notably, the film takes a fairly harsh view of its “antagonist”, Margaret Livingston’s “woman from the city”. She is portrayed quite simply as a seductress with wickedness abounding in her heart – brought to life on the screen through the actress’s skillful facial expressions and body control. There’s no wider character development of her person beyond her desire to corrupt this “good” farmer and convince him to murder his wife. Her portrayal as a “city” woman who smokes and wears her hair short with more provocative (slightly below the knee) skirt hems only serves to make the characterization that much more problematic. While her character’s choices are clearly wrong, the choice to make those choices the pure definition of her character makes it feel a bit more condemning of women who would have looked and dressed like her than of her choices themselves – basically a condemnation of the young flapper movement among women who wanted to be a bit freer and more liberal in their lifestyle choices. This condemnation becomes more apparent through her character’s juxtaposition against the innocence of Gaynor’s wife character. Pitting the two against each other gives this film an oddly troubling sense of slut-shaming.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                The other portion of the film’s story – that of the reconciliation between the farmer and his wife – really is an uplifting tale that deserves to be seen. I went into the film having read the plot synopsis, fully expecting the farmer’s choice between murder and not murder to comprise the film’s climax. It does not. Instead, that choice serves as the “crossing the threshold” moment that throws the farmer into the adventure of pursuing his wife (literally and figuratively) to get her to take him back and accept his apology. Their adventures in the city comprise the majority of the back half of the film and make for some excellent on-screen interactions, including the barbershop scene that plays on both characters’ insecurities, giving them the opportunity to see that they can once again place trust in one another, and the photography scene, which feels like a start on the road to their reconciliation, portrayed excellently in their flirtations in front of the camera. Their story, and the visual performances of Gaynor and O’Brien, give weight to the film’s actual climax, allowing the audience to feel the tension and loss that they both feel when separated in the film’s last act.

                Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans rides the performances of its leads and the uplifting story that they portray to a place of all-time greatness, not just for its notable performance at the first Academy Awards, but for the execution of a truly great silent film. The story’s treatment of its antagonist does feel a bit dated and anti-women’s-lib in a more modern context, but the relationship between the farmer and his wife, which is the film’s true heart, carries it beyond its shortcomings. It is currently available to stream with ads on Amazon Prime’s Freevee channel, or you can rent it on most streaming platforms if you’d rather avoid the advertisements.