The Golem: How he Came into the World: 1920

   The Golem is a creature created from Jewish folklore.  This story tells of a Rabbi who, after seeing an omen the stars one night, builds a creature out of clay to protect his people.  He uses his, "Jew-voo-doo" to bring the clay model to life.  The monster rebels, and this is where things get good.  The Golem, is played by Paul Wegener, who also directed the film.  It's interesting to find a German film, re-enacting Jewish folklore.  If it were about two decades later, making something like this, would have been unheard of!  Anyway here is my review of, "The Golem:  How he came into this world."


Wow.  The Golem.  You know, that's all you really need in your city.  Just a huge, lumbering guy who will do whatever you write on paper and give to him, and protect your town from certain doom.  To @#!*% with the national guard!  Just get a Rabbi to go ahead and build one for you!  But little did the people know that a beast like The Golem, would be very hard to tame.  But how could a servant be difficult to keep under control, when his main purpose is to protect the very city he was built in!  Well, that's what you find out in this film.  

   
   Even though this is a movie that has a subtle, architecturally expressionistic feel to it, I would still put it up against films like, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."  When something like that expresses more through all of the mediums of film, this film focuses purely on the characters, and I believe that doing something like that is a bold move.  German expressionism was a form of film that was on a terrifically extreme side of film making.  It wasn't about how much you could explain with dialog, rather how much you could emphasize  in a few seconds of movement.  It truly was the extreme art form of the 20's and 30's.


   Both the lighting and sound are stupendous, especially for a film that is this old.  There are certain qualities that a German expressionist film must require to meet this genre's standards, and good lighting is one of them.  It is very important to cast shadows or create a bright entrance in some areas, even if it is realistically impossible.  The lighting is symbolic to the mood the atmosphere is trying to conduct.  The sound is not that special, and its only for orchestral purposes, but nonetheless, it is a very high quality. 


   This movie has a very real, and gritty look to everything around it.  The textures to everything are very interesting to look at, which is something that I don't find too common in films this old.  And I know that The Golem's hair to the right of me --> doesn't look too real, but that's because he was constructed of clay.  Well, that's one way to take the easy way out with costume design, but I suppose I buy it.  For 1920, this design is pretty convincing, especially coupled with the rest of his body, which is shown in the previous picture. 


   "The Golem" is a very good film.  There is allot of suspense as well as some interesting visuals.  I would rather watch films like Nosferatu or Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, but if those were the first two places in a contest, I would give this film to the third.  "The Golem" is an interesting movie for one simple reason.  This was a German film made to depict Jewish folklore.  That seems really fascinating to me that something like that can exist.  To the best of my knowledge, this is correct, with a few minor flaws, but nothing strays from the point.  I think I would have liked it better if he had a love interest instead of two other people having this whole Romeo and Juliet thing.  You know, both from different sides of conflict, but sharing a forbidden love.  But I suppose having the monster have a love interest would be too much like the Frankenstein monster's case.  These two stories are very different, and judging by the fact that I haven't yet seen, "Frankenstein":  1931 (GASP)  it will be hard to decide which one is better.  But don't worry, I'm saving that one up for next Halloween!  Good-night everybody!


7.4/10

Next Review:  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  1920