Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

gavin6942 An extended family split up in France and Germany find themselves on opposing sides of the battlefield during World War I.Often regarded as one of the first true anti-war films, it had a huge cultural impact and became the top-grossing film of 1921, beating out Charlie Chaplin's "The Kid". The film turned then-little-known actor Rudolph Valentino into a superstar and associated him with the image of the Latin Lover. The film also inspired a tango craze and such fashion fads as gaucho pants. The film was masterminded by June Mathis, who, with its success, became one of the most powerful women in Hollywood at the time.Despite this -- the sales, the Valentino connection, and more... this is a little-known film and one that is rarely seen. Even being preserved by the Library of Congress (which is how it got on my to-see list) has not really raised its stature much. And yet, it is a minor silent epic that could be seen as the equal of anything DeMille or Griffith put out.

SimonJack This first film rendition of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" is a fine example of the early movies of substance. It is one of the early and best epic stories made during the silent era. It's worthy of preservation for that and for the style and methods of acting and filmmaking before the advent of the "talkies." This film seems to follow the story in the book closely. It is based on a best-selling novel of the same title by Vicente Ibanez, a Spanish author. But modern audiences are wont to compare this film with the later project of 1962 that starred Glenn Ford and a huge cast of notable actors. While the general story is the same, there are major differences in the screen versions. This film clearly is an anti-war movie. A family is torn apart by divided loyalties in a war, and the result is the death of the sons. Coming as it did just a few years after the end of World War I, it preaches strongly about the horrors of war. The foreboding character of Tchernoff (played by Nigel De Burlier) is a sort of harbinger of events to unfold, a prophet of doom, and a narrator within the story. That was a device that early Hollywood seemed to use on occasion in silent films, especially in longer dramatic films such as this. It would convey more details to the audience about what was taking place, as well as be a tool for persuasion as here. The advent of sound made the device obsolete. Today, it would be a distraction, but in this film it is a significant role. Another major difference between this and the 1962 film is in the main role. In the 1962 movie, Glenn Ford's Julio Desnoyers is the leading character. Not so in this first film. The main character here is Julio's father, Marcelo Desnoyers, played by Josef Swickard. Julio is a major character in this film, but only after that of his father. Rudolph Valentino plays Julio and clearly had his breakout to stardom with this role and film. Vincente Minnelli wanted the 1962 film set during WWI, as was this original and the novel. I doubt if that would have boosted the later film. The outcome would still have been the same – with Julio being killed. And, another problem would have been with the historical perception of World War I. It was the great war of the trenches – where most of the fighting took place and senseless waves of men were killed. But, this story takes place almost entirely in the time before the sides went to the trenches. Only toward the end do we see Julio and his cousin dying facing each other between the trenches. And his father and family lament his death at his grave site.

georgana Valentino was in New York when he read in a trade paper that this movies was going to be made. He had already read the book and wanted to play the tango scenes. He had much experience with the Brazilian Tango when he made his living as a "Taxi Dancer" (A dancer that is picked up by a partner and paid for the time he dances with them - like a taxi) in New York. When he came back to Los Angeles to inquire about the tango scene in the movie, he learned that the casting office had been looking for him and already wanted him to play the part of Julio. He was so thrilled! Some people aren't aware that Valentino had come to Los Angeles in the first place because he wanted to work in agriculture. He was tired of taxi dancing and he also had been involved in a scandal in New York that ruined his reputation as a dancer. When he filled out an application to work at Metro studios, the question on the application asked "Why do you want to work in movies?" Valentino wrote the answer "Tired of ballroom dancing." Valentino loved to dance. Many times he kept a dancing job on the side before he was making big money. Then he still danced for fun.

Ron in LA Romantic wartime adventure starring Rudolph Valentino as a wealthy Argentine-born Frenchman who travels to Paris, teaches ladies to tango, and has an affair with a married woman that becomes complicated by the onset of the Great War. The film is a comprehensive, albeit maudlin, account of WW1 from the French perspective, and succeeded in 1921 as a means for the families of wartime casualties to process their grief.I disagree with the comments calling this an anti-war film. A pro-war position will often include intense grief over the casualties of war, but will see those casualties as necessary, and serving a great cause. In The Four Horsemen, the French are noble, the Germans are virtually all monsters, the Americans are heroes, and the only really unsympathetic character (besides the Germans) is the Frenchman who shirks his patriotic duties.All Quiet On the Western Front is an anti-war film, but The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse makes you want to put on a uniform and fight.