Douglas Fairbanks: The Thief of Bagdad R1

R1 originaali, ei suomitekstejä. 

Carefree Ahmed the Thief must endure various fantastic adventures to woo the beautiful Princess away from the villianous Mongol Prince. Features score from original cue sheets by organist Gaylord Carter.

• Director : Raoul Walsh
• Media Format : Black & White, NTSC, Silent
• Run time : 2 hours and 35 minutes
• Release date : April 8, 1998
• Actors : Douglas Fairbanks, Julanne Johnston, Snitz Edwards, Charles Belcher, Sôjin Kamiyama
• Producers : David Shepard, Douglas Fairbanks
• Language : Unqualified (DTS ES 6.1), English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
• Studio : IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
• ASIN : B00000FE8Y
• Writers : Achmed Abdullah, Douglas Fairbanks, James T. O'Donohoe, Lotta Woods

Aside from perhaps Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, Raoul Walsh's The Thief of Baghdad is my favorite silent movie, and one of my favorite movies period. I've seen many prints of this well-loved and dog-eared classic, but the Cohen Films version has been the clearest and most enjoyable I've seen yet. Like many previous iterations, this one features a Rimsky-Korsakov inspired Scheherezade accompaniment, but rather than just randomly slopping the track onto the film, they've obviously arranged the music to correspond what's going on in the film, which helps match the music to the sentiment and scenes the audience is seeing, much like a live orchestra would have done at a premier screening when this film first debuted in 1924. Although the special effects may not be what we are accustomed to in today's snoozy CGI spectacles, they are as fresh, novel, and entertaining as any you may have seen in the best examples available at any time since this film first showed. They are also all the more remarkable since these were all practical, "in-camera" effects using the most sophisticated tricks of the time, so much so that it makes you wonder, just how did they actually do that?!? The editor used only as many inter title cards as were necessary, and no more; this is pure cinema, a charming and captivating romp that audiences of every stripe will enjoy. It is entertaining from the very first frames until the very last, and would serve as an excellent introduction for kids or adults alike to the many pleasures that silent films have to offer.

In addition, this significant cinematic accomplishment really is the keystone, the uncontested original, the very first successful iteration of the action-adventure genre. There is no Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark without The Thief of Baghdad. No Star Wars: A New Hope. The hero's journey, the damsel in distress, the new complications, the depths of despair, the triumphant return--all now-standard features of today's films--are presented for the first time in this film. It's all here. Everything released since then have been digital approximations of Xerox copies of mimeographs of the fresh, original, daring and dreamlike shadows of the imagination first presented, and arguably best presented, here in silver nitrate celluloid nearly a hundred years ago. Watch it. Rewatch it. Share it with a friend. They'll thank you.

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