Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
On DVD at last..., June 6, 2001
The lack of sound in a silent film often heightens the emotional intensity rather than diminishing it; such is the case in THE LAST LAUGH, a film that turns a rather mundane premise (an old man loses his job) into a visually potent and emotionally powerful experience. The absence of sound, and in fact, the near absence of words via title cards, is especially appropriate for the film's depiction of loneliness, despair, and mental stupor. Sound could add little, if anything at all, to the towering performance by Emil Jannings (who was actually much younger than his character), who conveys a wide array of emotions with only body gestures and facial expressions.To correct the technical info above, this Kino DVD edition is for ALL REGIONS. It also contains some extra material: an excerpt from the German version showing the "epilogue" title card in German, and a still gallery. The picture of this DVD looks exactly the same as that of the Criterion laserdisc made in '93 -- picture is in good shape overall, but the image often looks soft, and details are sometimes hard to make out. While playing the disc on a PC with a software DVD player, I have to turn on "force BOB mode" in order to eliminate the frequent motion artifacts. On my non-progressive scan standalone DVD player, however, I do not see any motion artifacts, but paused frames are sometimes unstable and jittery. The score on the LD, composed by Timothy Brock, is also used for the DVD. The running time of 91 minutes shown on the DVD case is incorrect. It runs 88 minutes, same as the Criterion LD. I was surprised that the PCFriendly software is included on this disc (and it will auto-run on your PC), but there is no DVD-ROM feature at all.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
German art!, April 28, 2000
This film is truly revolutionary. Pioneer camera man Freund uses moving shots to evoke the inner turmoil of the proud hotel porter Jannings. Sadly, he is demoted and his life turns to darkness and nightmares. Beautiful imagery, brilliant acting, and a magnificent feat of Master Murnau. This movie radiates like a 90 minute continuous Expressionist painting. I highly recommend Friedrich Murnau's work. This 1924 film is originally titled "Der letzte Mann" or "The Last Man."
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23 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Movie is Great, BUT the Buyer Beware!, October 5, 2004
I concur with most of what is written in the reviews below: This indeed is one of the greatest silents ever made; Karl Freund's sauntering camerawork and lighting are gorgeous; Keith Brock's score is a nice fit, and; the transfer is from a well-preserved print.
That said, I did not get to find all that out, despite owning the DVD for over two months. Why?
Well, for one, I just got discharged from active duty service in the Army. I lived in a barracks at Fort Dix, NJ, and watched DVD movies on my laptop computer. So, after buying this gem of a flick, I rushed back to my room to watch it.
Nada.
Unfortunately, Kino Video -- a company that wants to be noted for its sterling film preservation efforts and highest quality transfers -- was not content with simply letting me watch this disc. No, instead, Kino used this disc as a veritable Trojan horse to smuggle a program called "PC Friendly DVD" onto my hard drive. Naturally, there was no labelling at all on the packaging, to let me know that Kino had ulterior motives, but I nonetheless loaded the program onto my hard drive, that I may watch this movie.
Ah, but there's one more catch: Once the software downloaded, a pop-up window came along to add insult to injury. Seems that even though I let Kino download a program onto my laptop without my consent, I then needed to register the damn thing before I could watch this movie! Talk about gall!
Problem was: My barracks room did not have an internet connection, so I couldn't register their software, thus was I verboten from being able to view this movie until I arrived back at home, sweet home, back in Texas, and was able to watch it on my home DVD player.
I talked to an Army buddy who bought Kino's release of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," and he was unable to watch it on HIS laptop computer. He waited three weeks for his package to arrive from amazon, only to find that the insidious product registration requirements of the alleged "PC Friendly" DVD player made it impossible to view the movie.
Troops in the sands of Iraq don't have internet access for their laptop computers, either.
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