Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Written by Carl Mayer

Directed by F. W. Murnau

1998 List Ranking: NA

2007 List Ranking: 82

About two and a half years ago, in April of 2018, I officially started this Chris Reviews project by watching 1927’s Wings, the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. As I did my research for the film, I discovered something interesting about that first Academy Awards ceremony: there was no Best Picture category! Instead, there were two awards, both equal in merit: Outstanding Picture, which went to Wings, and Best Unique and Artistic Picture, which went to Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. By the following ceremony, the two awards had merged into Best Picture, and Wings was retroactively decided to have been the winner of this new category.

All of this history to say that I’ve considered Sunrise to be a sort of “lost Best Picture”, and therefore I was very excited to finally “complete the collection” with the viewing of this film. Having seen it, I feel very torn as to whether the right film got the retroactive honor.

The Woman From the City embraces The Man in this highly artistic shot

It makes perfect sense why Sunrise won Best Unique and Artistic Picture, because it certainly is that, particularly the first half. The film’s use of its titles (it’s basically a silent film, although it was released with a synchronized score and sound effects track) is very inventive: when discussing a drowning, the letters themselves appear to drown down towards the bottom of the screen. Later, there is a really inventive use of dissolves and cross-cutting as The Man imagines The Woman From the City embracing him. In short, the film was much more bold and artistic than I was expecting going in, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Compared to Wings, which I enjoyed, this film seems more creative. There were a few interesting things about Wings that seemed technically advanced (director William A. Wellman actually made his actors learn how to fly fighter planes and then strapped cameras to them), but the creativity definitely pales in contrast to Sunrise. However, the other issue becomes that midway through the film, Sunrise almost turns into an entirely different movie, and I think that shift in tone and design is what swung the decision in Wings’ favor.

The Man (George O’Brien) succumbing to murderous urges

To backtrack a bit, however, let me quickly explain the plot. Sunrise deals with a love triangle. The Man, married to The Wife, is having a torrid affair with The Woman From the City (these characters are so named because they are meant to be archetypes in a story that can take place anywhere, at anytime). She suggests The Man murder his Wife by drowning her, and making it look like an accident. The Man (after initially refusing to the point of basically choking the life out of The Woman From the City) agrees, and the next day takes his Wife out on their boat. It’s the happiest we’ve seen The Wife (who is implied to know or suspect that The Man is being unfaithful), which makes the sequence all the more suspenseful as he rows them out (despite their dog trying to warn her) to the open water. She finally understands when he stops and advances like a murderous zombie towards her. Director Murnau ratchets the tension here as he gets ever closer…and then comes to his senses and takes her to shore, where she promptly runs away to the city (presumably, the same city The Woman is from). There, rather than finding a police officer or a divorce lawyer, she allows him to take her to a restaurant and eventually forgives him. At this point, the film turns into a romantic slapstick comedy as they go to get pictures taken of them and enjoy a carnival, complete with a piglet that gets drunk (YES, REALLY) and all the while THIS MAN JUST TRIED TO KILL YOU NOT TWELVE HOURS AGO WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHAT. WHAT. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? This girl is in dire need of a Sassy Gay Friend, pronto.

The Man and Wife are all smiles after he tries to murder her

I should point out here that the two leading performances, George O’Brien as The Man and Janet Gaynor as The Wife, are pretty good: Gaynor isn’t given much to do besides wringing her hands and hiding her face (which is par for the course for the time), but she actually won the first Academy Award for Best Actress (which, at the time, was given for an actor’s entire body of work for the year, not a specific performance). O’Brien is really the standout here: his scene on the boat is chilling, and he walks the very fine line between horror and pathos incredibly well.

A beautiful, creative, but disjointed film

There are other plot things that happen (and The Man chokes The Woman From the City within an inch of her life AGAIN), but it’s so jarring from the entire midsection of the film that I’m left wondering how I’m supposed to feel. Is it light with dark? Dark with light? Both? The film is certainly an artistic achievement; there are techniques here that I found to be incredibly advanced for their time, but then, I said the same thing about Wings, too. There is even a shot that is strikingly similar to an iconic shot from Wings, which really messed with my head. However, as good as this film is, it just doesn’t quite match Wings. Wings is a war story, which I don’t care for, but at least it is consistent with its tone and its stakes. Sunrise is a really good film, but it’s just disjointed enough to give Wings the leading advantage.

FINAL GRADE: B+