decades best - 1900's silent era

ive always believed that striking images and effective facial expressions from actors was far more important in silent films than the story, but ozu brings us this silent classic where he uses effective performers, creates some of the most beutiful images ive ever seen in any film silent or not, and tells a near perfect story to bring the best of all worlds together so that we get one of the best silent pictures ever made. nearly as good as ozu's remake 25 years later, this story is authentic but passionate and convicting. easily one of the darkest films of ozu's career, the film is also beautiful to consider despite the folly and depravity of some of its characters. a must see.

85 years later and battleship potemkin is still considered by most to be one of the greatest war films of all time. criticized often because of its manipulative appraoch, people often forget that this was eisenstein's purpose. the film was sort of an experiment to see how well a film could pull at the emotions of an audience, and for this film it works. the odessa stairway scene is still to this day one of the most shocking and tragic scenes in the history of film and its images are easily cemented on the brain. a true classic.

often considered cinema's first great masterpiece, its a shame that some of the scenes from this fritz lang classic are lost to us forever. i feel that the film only preserves so well despite its missing pieces because it is a silent film and can be filled in with text screens, because i was still engaged in the story from start to finish. the only real critique of the film is that some of the actions of the characters didnt fit the story that well, but overall this film is highly effective in its scale as it tells a great science fiction story for its era. an impressive film that any true film fan should see.

the first great horror film is still a bit frightening nearly 90 years after its release. the poor picture quality adds to the terror making this a film timely made, and the story and running time are perfect for a silent film. a classic that must be seen.

often considered the greatest film by the legendary charlie chaplin, city lights is a beautiful love story with tons of charm. although it drags a bit at the start, the story picks up and gets better and better as time goes on, providing a poetic ending with a bit of a twist. no one can deny chaplins genius, and this film is a great display of some of his most witty comedy. an all time classic.

cecil b demilles silent classic about the life of Jesus. demille, one of the greatest directors in history, says that this is the most important film he ever made. he claimed to have a deeply rooted reverence for the Bible but he was also a showman as a filmmaker, both sides of his character show in this film. he took way too much liberty with the telling of Jesus' life and created a flawed portrayal of events, but did so well with what he got right that I still had a genuinely worshipful experience watching this film. some of it was so bad it was comical, other parts were so good i was in awe. ultimately it was well worth the time even though this film was a bit long for a silent film.

griffiths lengthy film is often cited as one of the great films in history, and because of its innovation in technique and massive budget it deserves most of its reputation. i did however find the film to be too slowly paced, resulting in an unnecessary length, and the film lacked needed clarity in proving its main point. in some ways the film is griffiths justification for his own racist themes in his previous film, which made the film labor too hard to be enthralling on its own without a back story. a must watch for die hard film fans, but not memorable.