User Reviews

I was given a copy of this incredible film, The Cossacks, on disc from an archive and I improved it by multi-tinting it and adding an excellent Slavic-flavored musical soundtrack. All for my own pleasure, of course, since the film is copyrighted MGM. This film is even strangely topical today, especially after 9/11, but that's all I'm going to say on that matter, except I think it will be a long time, or never, that TCM will broadcast this silent because of political correctness.

The Cossacks is a similar story to the Tony Curtis - Yul Brynnur 1960's film Taras Bulba, but with several important twists in plot. An Orthodox Cossacks chief (played magnificently by Ernest Torrence in what I consider to be his best silent performance) is ashamed of his only son (played passionately by John Gilbert) because he will not fight and kill the hated Muslim Turks who are their community's arch enemies. He prefers to lounge around in the fields and be a lazy dreamer. He's in love with beautiful Maryanna (played exquisitely by Renee Adoree) but she finds it hard to justify his unwillingness to be a man in the mold of the other Cossacks, so she tries to shun him, but all the while the audience knows she's crazy about him.

The Cossacks community shames Lukashka publicly and there is a huge fight between father and son. When Turkish prisoners happen to escape from their village Lukashka's latent violence deep within himself erupts and he changes in one night to a violent warrior and killer. Father is now pleased with his son.

While the men are away to do battle with the Turks a representative of the Czar (Nils Asther) arrives. He's been ordered to tell the Cossacks that the Czar wants peace with the Turks, and also he is told to find himself a wife among the Cossack girls. Naturally his eye falls on Maryanna. When Lukashka returns a jealous battle ensues for the love of Maryanna. Maryanna, publicly humiliated too many times by Lukashka, decides to marry the Czar's representative and to leave the village. While Lukashka and his father chase after the newlyweds' carriage the carriage is also attacked by the Turks and Nils' character is murdered on the road. Lukashka and his father are also ambushed by Turks. They are all brought back to the Turks' stronghold and tortured.

I won't reveal the ending but it is bittersweet and profound. This film has to be the most violent silent film I've ever seen and boasts one of the best performances from John Gilbert I've ever seen, second only to The Big Parade.

I do hope that TCM eventually airs this film but quite honestly I doubt they will in any timely fashion, it might stir up potential political problems for the station by its visual imagery against Muslims.

The Cossacks may well be the best bad movie ever made. Certainly the characterizations are shallow and quickly changeable, often for little or no reason. Gilbert's change from a pacifist to a leader is inexplicable - where did he get all the training to do the incredible stunts and fighting that allowed him to kill 10 Turks and trounce his father, the strongest man of the tribe? Why are Adoree's passions so flighty? And why are the Cossack and Turk cities so close they can be reached in ten minutes or less?

No matter. The action rises above plot as in the best serials. The horsemanship is so good it couldn't be anyone other than Yakima Canut. The battles are stirring. The costumes and sets are wonderful. The glass shots and special effects are woven into the story to great effect. My one complaint is that the original score was supplanted by a new one by Robert Israel. Perhaps TCM thought the original was of poor quality but this is belied by the quality of the print.

This John Gilbert/Renée Adorée film is not, as another reviewer pointed out, THE BIG PARADE. In fact, it's pretty obvious very early on that this is not a truly great film due to the strange casting of Gilbert as a macho Cossack! While almost all the bald men of his tribe make Bluto from Popeye look like a sissy, having the handsome and delicate Gilbert in this role seemed peculiar to say the least!

As for the plot, it, too, was a bit weird and will no doubt ruffle the feathers of a few feminists, as the Cossack men and women are amazingly primitive!! The women stay home and work like dogs while the men do what any macho man would do--kill Turks to make God happy and to get chicks (Cossack women love a man who has slaughtered infidels--no need for dinner and roses with these ladies)! In many ways, in this regard it reminded me of ONE MILLION, BC, as the people and their needs were very, very basic!!

At first, Gilbert wants nothing to do with all this killing and mayhem as he's very much a "sissy" who likes girls. But later, rather out of the blue, he turns out to be a one-man killing machine--dispatching 10 Turks in his first raid!! What a man!

Now if you can allow yourself to look past the silly casting and occasional lulls where the plot is a bit dull, you will be rewarded with one of the most exciting final reels in silent film history. The final battle with the Turks gets very high marks not only for excitement but will probably shock many viewers who are surprised by the Pre-Code realism. Up to 1934, Hollywood occasionally used somewhat graphic sex and violence in a way that most people today wouldn't believe (yes, your grandparents WEREN'T as stodgy as you might have thought). In this film, you see some amazingly brutal scenes that really get your blood pumping and rooting for the deaths of the infidels!! Plus, the explosion scene is very well done--particularly for 1928. In some ways, this portion of the film looks and plays a lot like a typical Hollywood Western of the era, believe it or not.

Overall, despite a slow and silly start, this is a silent film with much to offer--excellent acting (when not overdoing it), exceptional direction and superb stunts. Needless to say, Turks probably won't like this film and it's 100% non-politically correct--perhaps to such an extent that you won't see it aired on TV (I saw it at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in one of their theaters).

" . . . Offal," remarks one of THE COSSACKS early during this film. This comment seems to be a little demeaning when directed toward living prisoners of war. How were the Turks packing the Egyptian Movie Palace expected to react when reading such a title card? Take it lying down? It's claimed that the House of the Groaning Fat Cat snuck over 100 ACTUAL Cossacks to populate this epic. No one knows how many of them overstayed their work visas. Furthermore, there are no records substantiating that ANY bona fide Turks were imported to play themselves. Most people would call this a double standard.

If Mel Gibson were alive in the 1920s this is the kind of pointlessly vulgar, violent melodrama he'd have made. Cartoon action. Gilbert and Adoree in some unflatteringly lit scenes. Torrance chewing up the scenery. Laughably bad dialogue that sounds like they were drunk when they wrote it. Frances Marion should have had her name removed from the credits to save her the shame. This wasn't the end of John Gilbert's career but you can see it from here.