Synopsis
A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
1928 Directed by Josef von Sternberg
A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
Die Docks von New York, Docas de Nova York, Los muelles de Nueva York, 뉴욕의 선창, Les Damnés de l'océan, I dannati dell'oceano, 紐育の波止場, Życie zaczyna się jutro, Пристани Нью-Йорка, Пристані Нью-Йорка, 纽约船坞
Truly as perfect as cinema could possibly be, as much a nexus in camera movement as it is in human emotion. Perhaps it's not as interesting as later Sternberg's, not quite as abstract, not quite as fatalistic. But its sheer romanticism, its utter sincerity makes it no less important. This is a movie that's been with me since I was a child, picking up the old VHS with the Gaylord Carter organ score from the library as much as I possibly could. I wanted it to be with me, always.
Where to start with this impossibly beautiful film? Far from the (also incredible) madman's mis-en-scene of The Devil is a Woman & The Shanghai Gesture, every movement of the camera here…
Lives in transit. Everything springs from the dock setting, the atmosphere, the romantic longing and desperation, the sense of rot and yes of hope. One can taste the texture that Sternberg careful create around the place.
this is the best movie to use "smoke gets in your eyes" that doesn't actually use "smoke gets in your eyes." i don't know if i've ever seen a POV shot that attempts to replicate the mist of human tears before... whew, josef really has the juice.
It’s funny how the places that receive the most transit end up being the loneliest locations in the world; how we often feel more isolated when surrounded by others. The plot of this film takes place in the titular city’s port, a place where people are constantly coming and going almost at a faster rate than the tide itself. No one has any ties or any care. This is a place where marriage is a joke, where love can be bought, and where happiness can be obtained by swimming in a personal sea of alcohol. The only thing that is shallower than the water that flows along the edges of the port are the people who inhabit its docks.
Along…
Such a simple little story but it doesn't need any more than it packs into its short run time, really. Josef von Sternberg delivers an awesome-looking silent drama set on the docks in New York harbour.
A sort of a prototype for the character Clark Gable would play over and over in the coming years, George Bancroft is perfect as the big gorilla of a sailor (a 'stoker', actually) just out for a good time. Except his plans for his one night on shore are waylaid by a young woman, a prostitute evidently, jumping into the harbour in a suicide attempt.
It's not hard to figure out where that's going to lead, especially since the woman he pulls out of…
"So you're the guy that saved my life? You could of saved yourself the trouble, an' let me die."
"All right! Make believe you died - make believe you're startin' all over again! You left all that slush in the river, Baby. All you need is a good time!"
"I've had too many good times."
"You ain't never been out with Bill Roberts."
"Dry up before you catch cold!"
"Would you care?"
"Well, I might."
Women Film Editors #35: Helen Lewis
American cinema has always loved a Bad Girl.
Sometimes they're femme fatales out for blood; other times they're just people who've had tough breaks in life and do what they must to survive. Mae Roberts (Betty Compson) falls into…
The Docks of New York is a classic silent movie from 1928 that tells an emotional and dynamic story about love, loss and redemption. Director Josef von Sternberg expertly combines sweeping visuals of the sooty docks with intimate character drama, resulting in a film that is both atmospheric and deeply human. Bill Roberts, played by George Bancroft, is a down-on-his-luck sailor with a murky past. When he meets Mae, played by Betty Compson, a desperate woman trying to escape her troubled past, they strike up an unlikely romance. The chemistry between the two carries the film and, even without spoken dialogue, Bancroft and Compson are mesmerising onscreen. The stark cinematography perfectly captures the gritty atmosphere of the docks, so much so that…
Wellesian depth of field, a movie that's so immaculately *crafted* that it wouldn't even have to be about anything. And the narrative content is pretty stunning too; lower-depths naturalism in a social stratum where bourgeois proprieties are just irrelevant background noise, something the characters are too broken-down (or just too POOR) even to aspire to.
I won't say I cried, exactly... but my eyes were sweaty as hell during that long goodbye-scene when George Bancroft is ready to ship out again.
Josef von Sternberg yet again displays his mastery of the visual in this richly photographed story of low-lifers down by the docks. It's a slight tale about the chance coming together of an ill-matched pair (George Bancroft and Betty Compson) but it carries the whiff of reality.
The Docks of New York refuses to sentimentalise the roughness of these people who have clearly been round the block several dozens of times. The men look like they are stoking coal on ships from dawn till dusk and the women look like they hang around seedy waterfront bars from dusk till dawn. The beauty of the camerawork and the shabbiness of the environs mesh together wonderfully.
This movie finds strength in its warm but clear-eyed representation of pre-war New York. The visuals and emotions are both adequate but not nearly as strong as its reputation suggests, nor do they rival the greats of the silent era. It’s solid but doesn’t feel particularly exceptional or intriguing, and after reading so many overwhelmingly positive reviews, I’m baffled by my inability to see the supposed mastery here.