This beautiful and simple story of a South Seas love and loss romance might be the last great silent from the era. Along with City Lights (made the same year) it may well be credited as the apogee of the silent period even with the writing on the wall ( microphones in the plants) since 1927.
On the island of Bora Bora experiencing the full bloom of youth and beauty a girl and boy find love. Her radiance however is coveted by the Old Warrior who holds huge sway over his people as he demands she be his next wife. The lovers run off, find safe haven and employment on a more "civilized island" where the locals and Asian merchants exploit their innocence. Bribing a local cop, he's allowed to stay on but the threat of the Old Warrior causes vacillation on the girl's part who struggles with the fact that the only way to save her lover is to leave him.
FW Murnau's last film was fraught with budget and personality difficulties as he and his co-director Robert Flaherty did not see eye to eye. Distilling to a native crew and relying on Floyd Crosby's outstanding capture of the island paradise, it's people and the unabashed joie de vivre of a life in the sun Murnau movingly follows his doomed duo stranded in Eden, hunted by a stoic resolve that builds to a dire crescendo. Trapped by tradition, exploited by modern society Murnau paints his pair of protagonists into a corner and in the process paints a masterpiece of simple storytelling of his own.
On the island of Bora Bora experiencing the full bloom of youth and beauty a girl and boy find love. Her radiance however is coveted by the Old Warrior who holds huge sway over his people as he demands she be his next wife. The lovers run off, find safe haven and employment on a more "civilized island" where the locals and Asian merchants exploit their innocence. Bribing a local cop, he's allowed to stay on but the threat of the Old Warrior causes vacillation on the girl's part who struggles with the fact that the only way to save her lover is to leave him.
FW Murnau's last film was fraught with budget and personality difficulties as he and his co-director Robert Flaherty did not see eye to eye. Distilling to a native crew and relying on Floyd Crosby's outstanding capture of the island paradise, it's people and the unabashed joie de vivre of a life in the sun Murnau movingly follows his doomed duo stranded in Eden, hunted by a stoic resolve that builds to a dire crescendo. Trapped by tradition, exploited by modern society Murnau paints his pair of protagonists into a corner and in the process paints a masterpiece of simple storytelling of his own.