The Searchers

So. The Searchers. I think the main thing I took from watching this is that I don’t actually like westerns all that much. To a certain extent I feel like they are something I would like - a lot of the themes that are common in westerns are thing that I find interesting, for example, but yet, I just don’t. The main problem with this movie wasn’t that I thought it was badly made - in fact, I would probably have thought it very well made if it had been able to keep my attention for more than about five minutes at a time. The main problem was that I just didn’t care about any of the characters, nor what happened to them. None of them were particularly interesting, or relatable, and other than suffering a tragedy at the beginning of the film, I wasn’t really sure why I was supposed to care about them.

One of the main things that seems to be mentioned about this film in the small amount of writing about it that I’ve read is its attitude towards race relations. While it may have been forward thinking for the time in which it was made (and for a western) I can’t say I found it particularly nuanced.

I also found the pacing extremely strange, which is an issue I’ve had with other films on the list. This may be a problem with me, but I do think that skipping ahead years at times was an odd choice.

2001: A Space Odyssey

250 words just fundamentally isn’t enough for this film,so I will keep each of my remarks brief.

I was looking forward to this film the most out of the top ten, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because it is a film that I have been meaning to watch for a long time in a way that, say, Sunrise wasn’t. Secondly, I really love science fiction, and this is the classic science fiction film. I was aware before watching that it was extremely influential, and know of certain scenes, but actually watching it, it is hard to overstate just how much of the film has been referenced and recreated in other pop culture. Oddly, however, the surrealist turn that the film takes towards the end seems to be referenced less explicitly than other parts, such as the bone thrown up into the air at the beginning, or HAL-9000.

One thing that struck me that I wasn’t expecting was the use of sound in this film. In many ways, it’s a film that is very associated with certain pieces of music, in particular Thus Spake Zarathustra, and The Blue Danube. However, the way that film uses silence, the sound of breathing, and mechanical noises to create tension and atmosphere is truly remarkable. The visual effects, though dated, are still affecting, as well.

This is my favourite of the films I have watched from the list thus far, and I imagine it will become one of my favourite films, period.

Sunrise

I think in some ways silent films can be considered a completely separate medium to film with sound, and I quite like watching silent films, to see how they play with the limitations not having sound places on them. So, I was quite looking forward to watching Sunrise: A Tale of Two Humans, which is the first silent film on the list. It’s a fairly enjoyable film, and some of the visual effects it uses were surprising to me to be used in a film so early. Particularly the way that different images fade into each other, such as where the Man is day-dreaming about the Woman from the City being with him.

However, the plot of this film is very slight, and weirdly paced. In particular, the plot between the Man and the Woman from the City to kill the Wife appears to be resolved early the film. It does come back again at the end, but the middle sections is long, and while containing some scenes, such as the wedding and the dancing, that have lovely imagery and symbolism, there are other which seem fairly useless, such as when the pig gets loose at the fun fair, or when the couple break a statue at the photographer’s house. The film would end up being very short without these sections, but I think the parts of the plot that they convey - the renewed connection between the Man and the Wife - would be obvious without the point being belaboured.