Reviews

After l8 years of intermittent physical and mental abuse, a devout Roman Catholic wife finally gets the courage to divorce her sadistic husband. First-rate acting by Michael Nouri as the troubled husband cannot redeem an essentially shallow message picture. The wife is a nurse and the husband an ambitious lawyer. She is from a privileged background. He never stops trying to prove himself good enough for her family. You would think that an intelligent health service professional would seek counseling before she had five children by this jerk, but I guess love and religious devotion are blind. I lost all credibility in this scenario when she forgave him for kicking her in the stomach in late pregnancy. And she a nurse! Despite the physical violence, it is the portrayal of his mental and emotional cruelty to her that really hit home. We have all been in somewhat similar situations with controlling men and women. The characters are stereotypes, but the upper-class ambience is well-portrayed. Worth a viewing, if only to enjoy Nouri's psychopathology.

Whenever I see this comedy (and I've seen it now about eight times), I can't help drawing comparisons with the "French Revolution" episode of Mel Brooks's "History of the World." The comparison is definitely in favor of Sutherland, Wilder, and company. Although both comedies deal with similar issues, like the good-natured ineffectuality of Louis XVI, "Revolution" has a layered, multifaceted, subtle humor that often doesn't strike you until several frames later. It deliciously parodies standard costumers such as "The Corsican Brothers," "The Man in the Iron Mask," and even "The Scarlet Pimpernel."

Up until this film, most Hollywood representations of life under feudalism were cleaned and glamorized myths of the sort found in children's stories. War Lord gives us the 11th century as it actually was: dirty, violent and utterly ruled by brute force. The social stratification imposed by feudalism governs every human relationship, with power devolving down from the duke to the knight to the men at arms. Of the two spiritual authorities present, the priest and the Druids, the weakest is the priest. A moving love story with enchanting music.

Saw this silent film for the first time on early morning AMC. Found it intriguing, but very confusing. The pace was glacial, and it was impossible to tell what was going on because there were few inter-titles. I was reminded simultaneously of the complexity of German opera and of some of Leni Riefenstahl's more self-indulgent moments in her earlier films. The camera would linger interminably over a face or arm or tree, with no clue as to what it all meant. Paul Robson was in his prime, but even he could not salvage the incoherent plot and slow pace.