The Tempest (1979)

Enjoyable late silent
This film was a real treat to watch, since my field of special interest and expertise is Russian history, and this period in particular is one of my favorites. It starts in 1914 and introduces us to Ivan Markov (John Barrymore), a peasant who is studying to become a commissioned officer in the dragoons. The other fellows in the regiment laugh at him for thinking that he could ever even be considered for a promotion from sergeant to a more esteemed rank, and the aristocrats in charge of deciding whether he will be granted a commission similarly think it's ridiculous, but Ivan's dreams come true with the help of his commanding officer. His general considers him like a son, and holds him in extremely high esteem even though aristocrats and peasants didn't exactly mix or see eye-to-eye in those days.

Trouble starts when Ivan falls in love (or at least lust) with his general's beautiful daughter Princess Tamara (Camilla Horn, a recent import from Germany), who is engaged to another man. In addition to being engaged, she finds Ivan beneath her, and is horrified that a peasant of such low birth would dare to make advances on this noble princess of blue blood. Things come to a head at her birthday party, where, after dancing with her at the insistence of her father, Ivan gets really drunk and stumbles into Tamara's bedroom, where he passes out drunk on her bed after writing her a little love note on the back of his necklace and placing it on a small bouquet of flowers. Tamara brings her father and her fiancé to the scene, and Ivan is stripped of his commission and thrown into jail for 5 years. Though WWI begins very soon after, Ivan is not among the prisoners being sent to the front, because Tamara's snobby vindictive fiancé wants to torture him by keeping him in solitary confinement. By 1917, the tables have turned, and Ivan and his peasant friends are now the ones in charge and deciding people's destinies, while the ruling classes are now at the mercy of the people they exploited, oppressed, and mocked for hundreds of years. With Ivan in a position of power along with his Army buddy Bulba and a deranged-looking Commissar (a character who seemingly doesn't have a name), it is now up to him to decide how to deal with Tamara, her father, and her fiancé, if he will show them no mercy or if he will show any leniency because of his former affections for them (at least for Tamara and her father).

Although the plot doesn't really hold up (such as how the creepy Commissar somehow keeps turning up at all of the pivotal moments in the plot and how Ivan is essentially obsessed with Tamara and pretty much is throwing his weight around to try to get her to love him back instead of their love developing more naturally and less one-sidedly), how the plot itself unfolds is incredible. It does take awhile for the story to be launched into (as is often the case with these costume dramas), but the characters are well-developed by that time, and there's more and more dramatic tension and compelling action as the film moves along. The acting is also wonderful; Barrymore's subtle yet powerful acting shatters any stereotypes about how "everyone" in the silent era "overacted." I was also very pleased at the even-handed treatment it gave to the Russian Revolution and the society that existed just prior to WWI. Unlike most films of the era, with some one-dimensional simplistic portrayal of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks as evil horrible monsters and the aristocrats as flawless saintly unjustly overthrown people, it shows the flaws and positives of both sides. We see jerks like Tamara's fiancé lording his power over Ivan and the other lower-class soldiers, yet we also see people like her father, who has always treated Ivan with great kindness and like a human being instead of some peon he has the divine right to abuse and order around. These people who were being exploited and abused for hundreds of years had finally had enough and took power when the moment in history was opportune, yet we also see people like the Commissar, who quickly began abusing their power and acting as bad as the former absolute dictators. The Russian Revolution did not happen overnight or in a vacuum, contrary to what some want to believe, and we see very clearly here just why so many of the peasants felt so frustrated and angry at how they were treated and how the upper-classes thought they could get away with it just because of who they were.

Also included is a 1926 travelogue short featuring John on vacation to Guadalupe Island off of the coast of Mexico, together with a cute "female companion," Clementine, who turns out to be a little monkey instead of some glamourous leading lady from one of his pictures. Probably the most interesting part of this short is the footage of John and some of the other men in his party teasing and playing with a colony of elephant seals.

Overall, it's a very good film, even if it does take a little while to really get into the action. With each new film I see of his, the closer John Barrymore gets to becoming one of my favorite male actors. He really was a wonderful actor, in both the silent and sound eras, not to mention how handsome he still looked in this film at the age of forty-six. The only real flaw I could find to this film is that the ending does seem kind of abrupt, due to some missing footage.

the great profile goes bolshy!
a bizarre mixture of revenge and forgiveness set against the russian revolution of 1917, with john barrymore giving a dreadful performance as a wrongfully imprisoned soldier turned bolshevik. barrymore gave many fine performances (see "jekyll & hyde" or "beloved rogue" in silents, or "counsellor at law" or "20th century" in talkies); this is not among them.

Excellent Costume Drama
Last night, after watching this wonderful Silent Picture, my fondness for Silents was once again confirmed; they have definitely become an "acquired taste" in my adulthood (as a child & teenager, when I thought of Silents, slapstick and the Keystone Cops immediately came to my mind).

What can I say in praise of this picture? Excellent cinematography, camera work, art direction, settings and a top performance by John Barrymore, who at 46 still looked dashing and much younger than his age. His interpretation is mesmerizing, touching, intense, flawless, conveying truthfully and with passion, the love, hatred and ultimately, the bitterness of his character, Sergeant Ivan Markov, a humble peasant who achieves the impossible: rising from Sergeant of the Czarist Russian Army to First Lieutenant, only because of merit. But then tragedy ensues...

Camilla Horn plays Barrymore's aristocratic love interest and I must say that liked her performance, in spite of some criticism I have read regarding her acting style; George Fawcett is absolutely touching as the paternalistic General, who treats Barrymore as a son; Louis Wolheim is amusing as Barrymore's sidekick; Ulrich Haupt is aptly villainous as Horn's fiancé and Barrymore's superior; and Boris de Fast, absolutely frightening as the evil Bolshevik Leader.

There are some portions of the transfer that are terribly damaged, but I guess that IMAGE did the best restoration it could with what they had; also, at the end it's noticeable that some portions of the footage are missing. Notwithstanding the transfer's shortcomings, it is a must see for Silent Fans.

The DVD features as a bonus a home movie titled "Vagabonding on the Pacific", which shows a 1926 trip on John Barrymore's yacht to Guadalupe Island in Mexico. There is some incredible footage featuring Barrymore teasing sea elephants!