Overall, I was really impressed with the quality of the film, being that it was made around the 1920's. The actors were particularly convinving: they acted (and over-acted) in a convincing way and the desert scene was particularly well-done. The highlighting of the canneries and the gold gave the entire movie the uniquenesss that set it apart from other silent films I've seen: like The Great Train Robbery (I think that's what it's called). Also;--something about the camera angles gave the film a very dark feeling. It was like watching Citizen Kane for the firs time; a little bit. As we went through the score complimented the film very well and I'd never heard one like it before: the wedding scene had a great range of different melodies, and the kettle-drum work reminded me of the score from The Shinning: I loved it. The final scene with Marcus and McTeague came out much better than I thought it could--I prefer the silent movie interpretation than how I saw it in my head. The look on McTeague's face for the entire ending sequence was priceless (he seemed to be in limbo) and the highlighted death of the bird was more strongly felt when I saw it on film. While watching, I felt like I was experiencing something of a lost art: like no one today is capable of approaching that uniqueness of style because dialogue has always been completely dominant in major motion pictures. I'd definitely love to see the footage that was cut from the film, though, I'm sure it was a tough decision to make when they told him it was simply too long. I like what I've seen thus far.
--Michael Molder
