GRcade

Despite being myself a dirty socialist I did not know a huge amount about this film, I saw it on youtube one day and knew enough to think that it was the sort of influential soviet film I owe it to myself to watch. I'll note that I am not very familiar with silent pictures. The version I watched was about 75 minutes long; I don't think it's the censored berlin version, but it is the post Stalin version that had the Trotsky intro removed (forcibly, with an icepick), though admittedly the Lenin quote replacing it is pretty good: "Revolution is war. Of all the wars known in history, it is the only lawful, rightful, just and truly great war...In Russia this war has been declared and won."

This was really amazing and I was not expecting to like it as much as I did, it's amazing how effective the montage stuff and frequent sharp camera cuts sell what's happening on screen, all with minimal dialogue. At one moment it is glorious and trimuphant as we celebrate the great revolutionary worker, and in the next it is horrible and depressing as the brutality of the tsarist regime is shown in somewhat exaggerated and unrestricted fashion. All this with a constant feeling of tension; I haven't seen many things that are as tense as the steps sequence.

I'm not gonna say much more cuz it's probably already been said, but I'll close by saying this is a film everyone should watch at some point.

Old Hong Kong action films admittedly fall quite handily into my comfort zone, though there remain a few important ones I have yet to see. The Flying Guillotine is a fairly typical Shaw Brothers wuxia production of the era it comes from. It has a decidedly entertaining gimmick, which is essentially a ranged decapitation weapon; like a mechanically complex chakram on a chain. Thankfully it isn't overused either; I could imagine in a modern remake the characters would spend their fights kicking around a CGI wheel of death, but here it established at the beginning to be 1. hard to use and 2. horribly violent and dangerous. Everytime its brought out there a geniune fear of death, especially because of how willing this film is to kill off characters; in fact some one dies in like every fight in this film so the threat of the weapon is never diminished. It shows very detailed and violent beheadings where the headless, blood drenched bodies flail around for a few seconds after; iirc this kind of gooseberry fool isn't currently allowed to be shown in chinese cinema, but man is it effective.

My biggest issue with its film is in fact its relation to violence though; the main character is disillusioned by the violence he commits as a royal assassin, and yet he has a higher death toll than any of the villains in the film. No amount of grimacing whenever he kills someone can wash away the sheer disconnect this causes for me.

I have a couple more criticisms I want to highlight. It is interesting exactly how comically evil the Qing emperor is shown to be; while this is understanable and probably not far from reality, there's an undertone of racism wherein at the beginning of the movie that dynasty is explicitly described as mongol. Additionally, the two female roles in this film are pretty dumb; the first one introduced is good at illustrating the necessary point she is written in for, but is instantly reduced to being a sex object. The second one is largely pointless and imo the film would be better without her; she's basically just a damsel in distress who exists as the love interest and general collalteral to prevent the main character from running away his entire life. It's generic and out of place in film that concerns itself with themes of brotherhood and male conflict. Obviously I expect less than nothing when it comes to women's roles in old martial arts films, but I found this one particularly egrigious.

Good film but I'd recommend other movies in the same vein over it.