I wonder what he is today, almost a 100 years later. "Destiny" is a silent movie by famous German director Fritz Lang and it runs for 100 minutes, at least the version I watched. Lang gut help with the script once again by Thea von Harbou, with whom he worked together on a regular basis. This was a very early project of the two, considerably before "M" and "Metropolis". Both were around 30 years of age at this point. The story is as follows. Two people are madly in love, but sadly for the guy the time has come and Death takes him on his last journey. The woman will not accept it and begs Death until he finally gives in and giver he the chance to win his beloved back. People about to die are symbolized by candles who are about to go out. Death shows her 3 candles who are about to go out soon and tells her that if she can keep one of these from going out, then she will get her beloved back. But this is where the contradictions start. If a man's time has come, then there is no way in keeping him from dying. Death said so himself earlier in the film. So is he just toying with her?
Maybe, as the woman does not manage to save a single one of these three souls. So, she gets another chance... I always think of Death as a relentless character and I just cannot understand how he shows mercy so many times in this film that he would even give her another chance at the end. I quite liked the core action here. I only wondered why they would introduce all the townsfolk in the pub early on if they don't play a role at all later as the film progresses. But it wasn't bad and the actual idea of those 3 challenges is a decent one too. However, it hurts in terms of predictability. It was so clear that she would at least fail the first two, so this was basically half an hour wasted and we knew the outcome anyway. Apart from that, I did not like these 3 sequences anyway. Putting her in completely different regions of the world was a nice idea, but everything that happened during these 3 parts was just so uninteresting and I never really felt for her and prayed that she would manage to save the guy. The ending wasn't bad either. I read the core plot afterward, but this film was just so confusing at times that it was really difficult to understand what exactly was going on. I would definitely prefer it as a book version and I am not even a great reader. Then again, I am not the greatest silent movie fan either. Giving this one a chance does not change my perception that the genre is generally not too interesting and certainly not my cup of tea. Dagover did not impress me really here, but the actor who played Death was pretty good. I recommend "Destiny" only to silent film lovers. Everybody else will not enjoy it.
Maybe, as the woman does not manage to save a single one of these three souls. So, she gets another chance... I always think of Death as a relentless character and I just cannot understand how he shows mercy so many times in this film that he would even give her another chance at the end. I quite liked the core action here. I only wondered why they would introduce all the townsfolk in the pub early on if they don't play a role at all later as the film progresses. But it wasn't bad and the actual idea of those 3 challenges is a decent one too. However, it hurts in terms of predictability. It was so clear that she would at least fail the first two, so this was basically half an hour wasted and we knew the outcome anyway. Apart from that, I did not like these 3 sequences anyway. Putting her in completely different regions of the world was a nice idea, but everything that happened during these 3 parts was just so uninteresting and I never really felt for her and prayed that she would manage to save the guy. The ending wasn't bad either. I read the core plot afterward, but this film was just so confusing at times that it was really difficult to understand what exactly was going on. I would definitely prefer it as a book version and I am not even a great reader. Then again, I am not the greatest silent movie fan either. Giving this one a chance does not change my perception that the genre is generally not too interesting and certainly not my cup of tea. Dagover did not impress me really here, but the actor who played Death was pretty good. I recommend "Destiny" only to silent film lovers. Everybody else will not enjoy it.