Sunrise is one of the first great rom-coms in movie history. It doesn’t feature many of the same cliches that modern rom-coms do, but it’s also easy to see how it may have inspired many future rom-coms despite how different it is. I’ve noticed a trend with a lot of older “classics” that they were first hated upon release, and then went on to be considered the best movies ever, but this doesn’t seem to be the case with Sunrise. It seems as though Sunrise has always been pretty beloved, and it’s definitely been included on many “best of” lists since its release.

Love triangles are a pretty classic trope in romance movies, and so Sunrise is definitely one of the earliest times I’ve seen it done. The characters aren’t given names in this movie, so I’ll just refer to them as “man,” “wife,” and “mistress.” Basically, the man has a mistress, who wants him to sell his farm and come to the city with her. The man asks what to do about his wife, and the mistress comes up with the completely sane idea of drowning her. The man then invites his wife onto a boat with him, and the two go out onto a lake. The man finds himself unable to go through with killing his wife, and winds up feeling horrified that he almost did it. His wife is initially afraid of him and obviously upset, but he chases after her and proceeds to comfort her. From here, the two spend the day together and learn to fall in love with each other all over again. It’s a charming little story, and while it may be a little predictable in spots, it’s still highly entertaining.

I’m a big advocate for the idea that execution can be far more important than concept. So, while I may have seen ideas from Sunrise replicated in many movies that have come out since then, Sunrise was still able to stand out for me because of how it presented its story. It’s got a wonderful style to it, which helps it to stay enjoyable in my eyes. I know I always say that movies this old can be hard for modern audiences to watch, so I can accept if this kind of thing isn’t up your alley. However, I feel as though the only real barriers to entry for Sunrise are the fact that it’s a silent black-and-white movie. If either of those aspects make it impossible for you to sit through the movie, then this still might not be for you, but otherwise this is probably one of the easiest silent movies to watch in my opinion. I find it to be as accessible as it can be for modern audiences, so if you ever do want to check out a movie from the silent era, Sunrise might be a good first pick.

I really enjoyed Sunrise a lot, but it also didn’t blow me away as much as a movie like Metropolis did. This might just be because more grounded movies like this are harder to dazzle, but regardless it isn’t one of my all-time faves of the era. It’s not like it didn’t innovate at all, since it did feature an impressive amount of tracking shots, some elaborate forced perspective sets that were in a German expressionist style, and it did win Janet Gaynor (the actress that plays the wife) the award for Best Actress at the first ever Academy Awards ceremony. So, Sunrise definitely does have a lot going for it. I liked it a lot, and would recommend it to anyone that wants to see a really early example of a rom-com, but it also won’t be on my personal list of all-time favorite movies.

4/5