Los Angeles Times: Was 'Sunrise' really Oscar's first best p

[silentfilm]

http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_gol ... e-was.html


Gold Derby by Tom O'Neil

VOTE: Was 'Sunrise' really Oscar's first best picture?
Last night I finally watched "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans," the film at the heart of a huge Oscar controversy: Does it, not "Wings," deserve to be remembered as the first best picture winner? Many — indeed, probably most — Oscar snobs and hipsters insist, "Yes!"

There were actually two best-pic awards bestowed at the first Academy Awards ceremony for the eligibility period spanning 1927-28. One was for "best production," honoring "the most outstanding motion picture considering all elements that contribute to a picture's greatness." "Wings" won that — a b.o. hit about World War I aerial battles starring Buddy Rogers, Clara Bow and Gary Cooper and directed by William A. Wellman ("The High and the Mighty" and the 1937 version of "A Star Is Born"). Variety praised the film while noting that it buzzed with "bombing machines, captive balloons, smashes and crashes of all types."


However, the other, similar award was for best "artistic quality of production," honoring "the most artistic, unique and/or original motion picture without reference to cost or magnitude." "Sunrise" took that prize.

"Sunrise" is an unabashed soap opera about a farmer (George O'Brien) who falls for the charms of an evil city temptress (Margaret Livingston), who urges him to drown his innocent wife (Janet Gaynor) and mother of his adorable infant. It was one of the three films that earned Gaynor the first Oscar ever bestowed for best actress. The other two: "7th Heaven" and "Street Angel."

Variety hailed the "artistry" and "dramatic power" of "Sunrise," which was helmed by F.W. Murnau, who wasn't nominated for best director (neither was Wellman) and is chiefly remembered today for the silent classic "Nosferatu" (1922). "Sunrise" flopped at the box office, but the cult around it has grown so significantly through the years that, in 2007, it popped up for the first time ever on the American Film Institute's list of 100 greatest movies ever made, ranked at No. 82. "Wings" wasn't ranked at all.

Nowadays, all Oscar Nazis insist that we should fight for "Sunrise" to get its due and reverse the common misconception that the lowly "Wings" was the first best picture winner. After all, if "Sunrise" was the most "artistic" film, doesn't that mean it's really the best? Why does "Wings" get all the credit? It was merely the "best production."

Yes, but the criteria surrounding the latter award covered "all elements" of a film's greatness, presumably its artistry too.

So . . . enough! Which one's really best? As a self-respecting Oscarologist, I had to decide for myself!


I've seen "Wings" a few times and liked it OK. But now that I've viewed "Sunrise," I must concede: "Wings" soars by comparison. "Sunrise" is paper-thin, hilariously schmaltzy. All three primary characters are cartoonish clichés and their performances 3-inch slices of honeyed ham.

Mind you, I'm the kinda guy who'd normally side with the weepie. On my top 10 list of fave pix of all time are "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "Titanic." But I just can't shed a real tear when the farmer in "Sunrise" decides that he just — by golly! — can't off his sweet, dimpled wifey-pooh, after all. Nor could I cheer the scenes of the couple back together, all giddy smiles and kisses, posing for photos like newlyweds, dancing a happy peasant dance, joyous once he decided not to wring her scrawny little neck and hurl her over the side of the row boat.

What corn pone! Smothered in Cheez Whiz! "Wings" ain't Shakespeare or Scorsese, mind you, but it's better than that!

By the way, "Sunrise" wasn't the original winner of best artistic picture. No, no, no, "The Crowd" — King Vidor’s drama about an average New York couple’s struggle with daily hardships — won most votes from the Central Board of Judges, which was comprised of five cronies of Louis B. Mayer, who had created the academy as his private tool to crush the rising power of Hollywood labor unions.

But Mayer didn't want "Crowd" to win because it was produced by his own studio, MGM. That might tattle what everyone already knew: that this whole academy thing was his puppet organization. So he bullied the judges, yanked their strings, kept them up all night until they finally saw the light and ditched "Sunrise" for the alternative produced by Fox studio.

Other notable flicks up for the best pic awards included Gaynor's "7th Heaven," a romantic fantasy and b.o. smash ($2.5 million) that earned Frank Borzage the first Oscar for best director.

Two other best-pix nominees earned the best-actor trophy for Emil Jannings: Joseph von Sternberg's "The Last Command" starring Jannings as a Czarist army general reduced to poverty after the Bolshevik Revolution; in "The Way of All Flesh," he's a reputable man ruined by his sexual desires. "Flesh" is Victor Fleming's lost film, but enough reviews and descriptions survive to attest to its brilliance and justify its consideration as the best film that year.

[Mike Gebert]

Well, that was idiotic.

[boblipton]

The best picture award is given to the producers. Therefore it honors the production, not the artistry of the director or the set designer or the caterer.

The Academy Awards were set up so that the Fairbanks and their pals could get together and give each other awards. It still operates that way, although with different personnel.

bob

[Arndt]

On my top 10 list of fave pix of all time are "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "Titanic."

Says it all, don't it.

[WaverBoy]

Well, PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED isn't half bad...but it's definitely not in MY top 10.

MAJOR SUNRISE SPOILER BELOW







I do agree that the plot turn of the guy and the girl making up in short order and having a lovely outing, after him deciding not to kill her and run away with the city girl after all, is extremely hard to swallow, but it's such a beautiful and compelling film in spite of that, that I just don't care. I love it anyway.

[rudyfan]

Well, it's his opinion. Call me a snob, but anyone who calls Sunrise Cheese Whiz (and NOT Titanic) loses all credibility with me.

The story in Sunrise may be as tried and true as one of the groaners treading the boards at the turn of the last century, that said, the artistry with which Murnau wove the tale gets me every time. That this moron is not touched during the wedding scene shows he has a heart of stone and the brain the size of a peanut.

[dr.giraud]

Well, that was idiotic.

Hey, the potty-mouthed kids at Gawker Media blog Defamer agree!

http://defamer.com/380165/lat-oscar-blo ... nderstands

[Mike Gebert]

It gives me hope that so many of the potty-mouth kids seem to have seen Sunrise (and The Crowd and so on)... especially compared to LA Times Oscar bloggers, apparently.

[WaverBoy]

Well, it's his opinion. Call me a snob, but anyone who calls Sunrise Cheese Whiz (and NOT Titanic) loses all credibility with me.

Well said.

[Zool]

I wouldn't listen to anyone who has Titanic in their top 10. Bah!

As for the story about the wife forgiving the husband and having a good time afterwords, well that's all part of beauty of the film. It flows from beginning to end. Had Murnau followed the story it was based on closely, it woud not have been as dynamic...



************SPOILER*************

In the book, she's expecting to be killed, but it never happens. In fact, she some how figures out that he is going to kill her, and goes right along with it. Like it's a death sentence that she's willing to accept. That to me is more far fetched than the whole forgiveness thing that people pick on Sunrise about. Ultimately, he doesn't lay a finger on her at all. He is described as being uneasy about the whole thing. Worried that she will see the rushes and ask him what they are. He wants her to sit next to him, but he knows she's afraid to. On the way back she's still unsure of his intentions, but he confesses to her and repents. No way near as gripping. AND, if you ask me, it seems as if more adultery went on in the book than in the movie! Obviously, Murnau used the idea of the story, but he changed it around a lot, to his liking.

*********************************

There was a movie called The Trip To Tilsit. It follows the story to a T. Few people have seen it, I'm assuming. I don't believe it's available on DVD. I don't think it ever came out on VHS, but I could be wrong. The people who have seen it say that, like the book, it was good, but Sunrise was way better!

I like to remind people to watch Sunrise and not question it. Just enjoy the visual beauty that it is. Let it move you, if you can be moved.

By the way, I just saw Wings the other day. It wasn't like I remembered it when I saw it the first time 10 years ago. It captivated me during the scenes when both men were saying goodbye. The last 15 minutes just seemed different to me. I liked Wings, but it seemed kind of long. Ten years ago I saw it over the period of two days due to my work and school schedule. This time I saw it in one night. Seemed a bit much.[/i]