The story is told in a flowing, lyrical German manner that is extraordinarily sensual, yet is perhaps too self-conscious, too fable-like for American audiences.

| Jul 28, 2022

Any one who prefers an intelligent and stimulating film to the usual trash is urged to go and see it for himself.

| Sep 4, 2020

From two points of view, Sunrise is among the most remarkable films that have ever been flashed on the screen. One is the rich, sensitive beauty of the photography; the other the tragic tenseness of the story.

| Feb 6, 2020

The film is electric: overwhelmingly passionate and sexual.

| Dec 20, 2017

Rich, strange and gorgeous, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise shows what an artist of the late silent era could accomplish cinematically, backed by an open checkbook and fueled by the highest aspirations even in the simplest of morality tales.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 25, 2014

In his first American film, Sunrise... the German director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau creates some of the greatest images in the history of the cinema.

| Feb 25, 2014

F.W. Murnau's career-peak nova, the crowning film from that sacred, edge-of-the-abyss year of 1927.

| Mar 31, 2010

In its artistry, dramatic power and graphic suggestion it goes a long way toward realizing the promise of this foreign director in his former works, notably Faust.

| Feb 20, 2008

Picturesquely soporific.

| Jan 22, 2008

Released in 1927, the last year of silent film, it's a pinnacle of that lost art.

| Feb 13, 2007

An example of True Love styled to cinema perfection.

| Jun 24, 2006

This sexy melodrama and intense psychological thriller provides an original and satisfying mix of romanticism, artifice and realism.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Mr. Murnau proves by Sunrise that he can do just as fine work in Hollywood as he ever did in Germany.

| Mar 25, 2006

F.W. Murnau's Sunrise (1928) conquered time and gravity with a freedom that was startling to its first audiences. To see it today is to be astonished by the boldness of its visual experimentation.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 20, 2006

Reckless, romantic, and extravagant.

Full Review | Sep 7, 2004

An exuberant pioneer picture conceived on a big canvas, blazing an inspirational trail for just about everything Hollywood has done since.

| Apr 9, 2004

It's a love story that's more than just a tale of broken hearts and damp hankies. It's also a landmark in the history of cinema that turns melodrama into high art.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 3, 2004