Product Details

• Actors: Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry, Pomeroy Cannon, Alan Hale, Wallace Beery
• Writers: Rex Ingram
• Producers: Blasco Ibanez
• Format: Black & White, Full Screen, NTSC, Silent
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Nostalgia Family Video
• Run Time: 156 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00079V3B4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #338,087 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

This lavish silent drama, which follows the members of a wealthy Argentinean family as they journey through pre-WWI Europe and eventually wind up on opposite sides of the conflict, gave Rudolph Valentino his breakthrough starring role as the tango-dancing Julio. With Alice Terry, Alan Hale. 156 min. Silent with music score.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a glorious silent epic, February 5, 2001

By 

Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This 1921 anti-war masterpiece by Rex Ingram is an amazing cinematic experience. The photography by John Seitz is breathtaking, and for the most part (there is one section that's a little dark) it's very clear.

It's also a delight to read the adaptation of the Blasco Ibañez story by June Mathis. It has the flourishes in keeping with the era, and the poetic quality of it is lovely. It was Mathis who insisted on the casting of Valentino as Julio, giving him his first big heroic part.

This exquisite work of art is a massive production, 2 1/2 hours long, and wonderfully acted by all...even the monkey is terrific ! This video has the original score by Blaine L. Gale, and it fits the action perfectly.

The performance by Rudolph Valentino is a treasure. His grace and beauty have had few equals in film history, if any. He's simply gorgeous in this, and to watch him dance the tango in that smoky La Boca club is enthralling. I rewind it and watch it over and over...the musicality of it is absolutely astounding. Yes, Rudy lives in my heart, and in the hearts of many, for as long as the magic of film exists.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Effective; Valentino at his Best, February 15, 2002

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In some respects THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE suffers from being known as the film that made Rudolph Valentino a star; consequently, it is usually regarded as a Valentino vehicle rather than as a powerful film of World War I on an equal footing with the more widely acclaimed THE BIG PARADE and WINGS. Even so, HORSEMEN's deeper message far surpasses either and in an artistic sense leaves WINGS in the dust and is at least the equal of PARADE.

The film is not really a Valentino vehicle per se, for Valentino's role is equalled by the roles played by Josef Swickard and Alice Terry; consequently it has an ensemble nature quite unlike most other Valentino films. Based on the once famous but rather heavy-handed Ibanez novel, HORSEMEN tells the story of an extremely wealthy Argentine rancher whose two daughters marry European men, one from France (Swickard) and one from Germany (Alan Hale.) When the rancher dies, dividing his estate between his daughters, the women return with their families to Europe, one family residing in Germany and the other in France. The German family's sons quickly rise to high status, but the French family has a more difficult time, with father Swickard becoming increasingly materialistic and spolied son Valentino emerging as a womanizer who provokes a scandal by a torrid affair with the wife (Alice Terry) of his father's closest friend. Just as these various plot lines reach a climax, World War I explodes around them, reducing their personal concerns to so much trivia and placing the two families on opposing sides.

Interestingly, the performances in HORSEMAN bridge the gap between the very broad efforts of most early silent film and the considerably more subtle playing of the late silent era. Swickard gives a notable performance, Alice Terry is quite charming, and Valentino--still and unknown--plays with considerably more restraint than in later films... and is all the better for it. The cinematography is superb, and the film contains a number of scenes--the Valentino tango and the vision of horsemen riding through the sky, among others--of considerable power, and the overall film with its strong anti-war message is still very compelling and packs a whallop. Considerably superior to the later remake; recommended to silent film fans, war-genre fans, and Valentino fans alike.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This would have swept the Academies had they existed then!, January 23, 2005

By 

Anyechka (Rensselaer, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie was a huge blockbuster when it came out in the Spring of 1921; it goes without saying that had the Oscars and Academies been around back then, it so would have been nominated in every relevant category and probably would have swept the awards as well! It's even better because it was directed by the incredible Rex Ingram (whose lovely-looking wife Alice Terry plays Marguerite, the married woman whom Julio has an affair with) and had the screenplay written by the legendary June Mathis, who was one of the most powerful women in Hollywood at the time. Ms. Mathis was very heavily into spiritualism and mystic overtones in her movies, and she made these leanings manifest in the philosopher with the long beard who foresees the coming apocalypse and the subsequent havoc wrought by the four horsemen. The scenes of the horsemen galloping across the sky at periodic intervals as chaos reigns are some chilling powerful stuff. The battle scenes, images of destruction, and the part where Julio's father's house is taken over by the enemy are also incredibly powerful, and made even more powerful and effective because there's no sound (apart of course from the background music) to get in the way of conveying these powerful moments and images.

Besides telling an epic story of WWI and the family torn apart by it due to conflicting loyalties in their bloodline, it also tells very well the story of the family before the War, back when they still lived in Argentina, how they decided to move back to Europe (even though Julio's dad was very frightened to do so, seeing as he skipped out on military duty years before and was afraid he was still being hunted by the authorities), and most importantly of all Julio's growth from decadent libertine painter, having an affair with a married woman, to responsible fully-realised man unafraid to do his duty to France, even though he had been exempted from military service. He didn't have to go into the army; he CHOSE to do so because he wanted to do the right thing, grow up, and yes, also impress Marguerite because her husband had also joined the fight and he wanted to prove to her that he was worthy of her love and affection and not some little coward hiding from his duties and responsibilities as a man and as a citizen. As an animal-lover, I also found Julio's little pet monkey to be incredibly cute and charming; I loved when his father came to visit him after he'd joined the army and brought along a surprise from his mother, which turned out to be the monkey dressed in a little uniform and backpack of his own! Another great scene with the monkey was when Julio was listening to his grandfather's will being read and found that he hadn't gotten anything, despite being the pet grandchild, and the monkey consoled him by putting his hand on his.

This movie is incredibly stunning, moving, and powerful at so many levels; people who bash or make fun of silents have obviously never seen one like this one, which is a much more representative example of the genre than the bad seeds or ones taken out of context on purpose as "proof" that all silents are bad or overacted. It really deserves to be on DVD, not only because it's such a fine movie but also because some of the text is a bit hard to read on the print on the video. I'm told the laser disc version, remastered by Kevin Brownlow, was absolutely fantastic; one can only hope that will be the version that gets picked if it's ever put out on DVD.