One of the worst movies I've ever seen

One of my all time favorites.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Monday March 22, 7pm, The Paramount, Seattle"I will come to you in your dreams when the moon spreads its path on the sea"Tahitian lovers flee their island home to escape a royal edict. Chosen as a sacred maiden, the girl is tabu. "Man must not touch her, or cast upon her the eye of desire." They struggle to survive in an unfamiliar world while their fate slowly closes in.F. W. Murnau set sail for Bora Bora in 1929 to produce what would be his last film. He quickly lost his financing, alienated his co-writer Robert Flaherty, and was forced to bankroll the project himself. The end result was a lyrical vision of naked youth and forbidden romance amid warm trade winds and glittering tropical waters.Released in 1931, well beyond what is generally considered the end of Hollywood's silent-era, Tabu was produced as a silent film with a synchronized score. It differs from actual silent era films with synchronized musical/sound-effects scores in that it survives virtually unknown without its RCA-Photophone soundtrack.

A teenage island native, played by a young man named Matahi, and his love interest, Reri (Anne Chevalier), live happily in a South Seas paradise, surrounded by lush tropical vegetation, waterfalls, and majestic mountains. He's a pearl fisherman. She's an unattached young beauty. Their lives are simple and reasonably carefree. A spirit of innocence prevails. But even amid such beautiful simplicity and natural wonders, sinister elements lurk in the background. And that's the film's main theme.The story is simple and direct. It's both a love story and a visual documentary that will appeal to Westerners accustomed to a more tech lifestyle. Parts of the narrative are conveyed by means of the writings in a ship captain's log. The writing is displayed on the screen, for viewers to read. The film's tone varies from light and cheerful at the beginning to more somber as the plot moves along.Shot in Tahiti and Bora Bora, the film has a cast made up entirely of non-professionals. The B&W lighting is good, given the early era.The film is one of the last of the silent period. And I'm therefore reluctant to find fault with it. The native Pacific music is really beautiful, what there is of it. I could have wished for a lot more. By contrast, the imported symphonic score is loud, nondescript, and intrusive. I guess that would be the one thing I would have changed.Even for viewers who don't care for silent films, "Tabu: A Story Of The South Seas" might be appreciated for its documentary style visuals. For viewers familiar with silent cinema, this is a must-watch film, Director F.W. Murnau's last.

I saw this film just last night on a double bill with "Nosferatu." Considering that Nosferatu is a !*&@#%$ masterpiece, it was hard to compare this with the movie I just saw, plus my friend who was watching it with me was only thinking of "Mystery Science Theater" comments the whole time, but I had the mature response and I really liked this movie. The cinematography is beautiful, and the story is incredibly convincing. The ending also made me cry. It may not be as good as "Sunrise," but it's one of the last great silent films, and also great as a semi-documentary of Polynesian life. Considering Paramount's silent films barely survive, this should be seen as a treasure.

This is a great film, one that actually benefits from being silent. The south-seas love story could seem incredibly hackneyed, but the sensitive silent presentation makes it all seem believable. Flaherty's painstaking ethnographic research pays off, establishing that we are getting a genuine look at Polynesian village life. The roles are played by actual villagers under their own names.This was originally going to be a documentary like Nanook of the North, but Murnau got so fascinated by Polynesian legends told by the locals that he decided to incorporate them into the story. This also meant that he had to invest his own money in the film, as Hollywood would have none of it. Nowadays we think anything so beautiful couldn't be genuine, but Murnau and Flaherty seem to have constructed an accurate document.The tragic love story has its parallel in real life, as Murnau was killed in a car-crash days after the film's completion.The MTV generation is better able to appreciate silent films than the 60's crowd, so I recommend to viewers interested in something different.