The Last Laugh

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Vidhu K @RT05616094 Aug 23, 2025 Murnau's ingenious, towering work about man's ultimate sin, of falsely attributing a person's worth to their occupation and social standing and a reminder that an act of kindness goes a long way. See more Dawn B @RT17905508 Dec 6, 2024 The last laugh. You find out who your friends are eh! Like that it makes unusual statement towards the end. Read me book b.utt. 7.2/0. D.B. See more Leaburn O @RT35452347 Aug 8, 2023 One of the best of the silent era. Murnau was a master storyteller of parables. A lot to dissect in this movie but sadly it's a tale of a man who put too much stock in his societal status. Saw this one on YouTube where there is a good quality version with a nice score. See more georgan g @RT98616417 Mar 26, 2021 Glad I read about the societal issues this film represented, along with how working class individuals were affected. Lighting and camera work were well done. The beginning of modern film making. See more William L @RT77267842 Jan 27, 2021 Not only a massive leap forward from a technical perspective, but a unique interpretation of the role of the image of oneself in society, which strikes an oddly relevant tone with the rapid emergence of social media as the true depiction of a subject despite reality. Murnau presents the nameless doorman as the victim of a terrible fall from grace, whose sole crimes are essentially unavoidable - growing old, and wishing to still be of use. He maintains a way to support his family, but both he and the world around him treat his plight as a shameful defeat, as he attempts to retain the physical manifestation of his position, his uniform, with all the peculiarities of symbolism that such an article carries with it in German culture. Set design and camerawork elements that Murnau and his production team pioneered in The Last Laugh would become industry standard following its release. (4/5) See more Ethan S @RT80629691 Sep 28, 2020 The silent-era films that have remained of interest to modern audiences tend toward either the fantastic (e.g. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis) or comedic (e.g. the works of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton). These films, which rely on their visual brilliance to connect with audiences, remain potent today despite their lack of dialogue. Time has been less kind to the silent-era drama; it would seem it is just more difficult for modern audiences to pay attention to a story with complex narrative and emotional depth when the "talkies" seem to do it so much more effortlessly and enjoyably. But then there is this movie - a poignant character study of incredible depth and pathos despite having no dialogue at all. For the first few minutes after I decided to sit down to this film I thought: "this looks boring... lets see it through anyway, it's supposed to be a 'great film'." Ten minutes later the film had ceased to be a chore to watch and indeed sometimes I almost forgot I was watching a silent film at all. Something about Emil Jannings' portrayal, aided by the lively cinematography of the film, really brought me emotionally into the life of this aging doorman and his struggle for dignity in a situation where he found himself being discarded. And the fact that all of this was accomplished without dialogue or lengthy inter-titles and pages of exposition makes the achievement all the more remarkable, The only reason I don't give this 5 stars is the throwaway ending. I've read that this was a "happy ending" insisted on by the studio rather than part of the original plot of the film, but I would happily have cut the ending off and reverted to the German title "The Last Man" rather than "The Last Laugh". Perhaps you could argue that the ridiculousness of the ending in some way adds to the poignancy of the 'real' ending of despair, but I think we could do without it. See more Read all reviews

The Last Laugh

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