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Wrath
of the Gods
In
this early feature, a father (played by Sessue Hayakawa)
and daughter (Tsuru Aoki) live under a Buddhist
curse that prevents the daughter from being married,
lest the Japanese island they inhabit be destroyed
by the wrath of the gods. Then, comes along a shipwrecked
American Christian (played by Frank Borzage, before
directing such classics as ‘7th Heaven’
(1927) and ‘A Farewell to Arms’ (1932)),
who converts the Japanese family to his religion
and plans to marry the daughter. Clearly, ‘The
Wrath of the Gods’ is rather bigoted in its
promotion of Christianity as a peaceful and loving
religion and its portrayal of Buddhism as vengeful
and violent. Really, the filmmakers display no insight
or full understanding of either belief. Beyond this
questionable text, the film is well made for its
time and has an exciting climax, with scenes of
an angry mob and the wrath of the gods displayed
in a volcano eruption. There’s some quick
editing during the climax, in addition to the special
effects to achieve the volcanic eruption, which
includes lots of smoke and fire, falling debris
and the use of a (obvious) miniature volcano.
video source
quality rating: A |
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Wrath
of the Gods |
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Item
price: $14.99 |
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B&W/56
Min./1914 |
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