THE LAST COMMAND
US, 1927, 87 minutes, Black and white.
Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent, William Powell.
Directed by Josef Von Sternberg.
The Last Command was one of the last silent films. Directed by Josef von Sternberg, successful in Germany and the next year to make The Blue Angel, and who then made his career in Hollywood starting with a number of Marlene Dietrich vehicles, the film is an interesting blend of German and American styles of the '20s. The setting is Hollywood with flashbacks to Imperial Russia - and is allegedly based on true characters. The film shows something of the Russian Revolution and its spirit a decade after the event. However, the film is most striking in its presentation of Hollywood in the '20s: the breadlines, the extras lining up, their humiliating treatment, the details of film-making, the work of the director. Emil Jannings, in the central role (also from The Blue Angel), won the first Oscar for Best Actor for this role and his performance in The Way Of All Flesh in the same year. William Powell was at the beginning of a successful Hollywood career. The film is still quite interesting, visually arresting in its compositions and action and insightful in its presentation of human nature.
1. The impact of the film as a silent classic? The end of an era? Emil Jannings and his Oscar? The status of the film among silents?
2. The work of Josef von Sternberg: his background in Germany, the impressionist style of German film-making in the '20s? A German in the Hollywood of the '20s? An interesting blend? The background of World War I, the Russian Revolution, the social changes of the 19th. and 20th. centuries? The media, the development of film? America as a place of fulfilment of dreams, the refuge for European emigres?
3. The silent style: black and white photography, compositions, mobility, close-ups? Style of acting: expression, mime, dialogue? The picturing of studio work, motion, tableaux, action? Intensity? The captions and their tones? The look at Hollywood film making itself?
4. The quality of the cast and its strength? Jannings and his Oscar - deserved?
5. The situation of Hollywood, the tough Americans, cynical attitudes, pushing extras around, throwing them their clothes, throwing them at them, the extras being herded, the assistant director as a tyrant, the dressing-rooms and the chatter, the standing around, waiting to be filmed? The humiliation? The work of the director? Special effects? An interesting glimpse of Hollywood and its ethos?
6. The insight into studio life, the types, the making of the film? The importance of art and reality? Art mirroring nature, shaping it? The General as able to relive important moments? The interblending of film and reality? The audience drawn into this by watching two processes: the filming of filming, the filming of reality?
7. The portrait of the General: slow, shaky, his comment about the shock, his medal, his knowledge of Russian traditions? His being ridiculed? Singled out by the director? Audience response to him? The discoveries of the flashback? Changes of attitude towards him? The return to the studio scenes, the treatment by the director, the ten years wait, taking him re-enact important scenes in his life? The General's being caught up in them, his death? The comment that he was a great man?
8. The portrait of Russia in 1917? World War 2, the human sacrifice of so many troops? Patriotism? The Revolution, the background of the spies in the theatre? The meeting of the revolutionaries and October 1917? The Tsar and his pageantry, the comment that the war was a parlour game? Audience response to October 1917? The presentation of officers, soldiers, the people. the revolution? Style and action?
9. Sergei Alexander: cousin to the Tsar, his pomp and style. authoritarian, his humour? His officials around him? Ability with strategy? The parade and impressing the Tsar? Yet his not wanting to sacrifice his men? His arrival in the town, his style - the meal? The interview with Leo and sending him to prison? Natasha and bringing her to his quarters? His falling in love with her? Her not shooting him? The train trip, the Revolution, the change in his fortunes, the shock. the humiliation. the abuse of the crowds, shovelling the coal in the train? His shock at Natasha’s behaviour, her giving him the pearls? His escape? The crash of the train and the death of Natasha and his constant shake? Audience judgment of his value as a Russian, General . human being?
10. The General and Leo, seeing him in Hollywood? His making him a General in the film, reacting to him, the whip, making him relive the moments: the wind. the fan, the lights? The General urging his people? Wondering “Did we win?” His death?
11. The significance of power, reversals of fortune, revolution and the reliving of these?
12. Natasha: the spy, the vamp, her poses. her mission to kill the General. her being entertained. falling in love with him. going to shoot him, refusing (and the mirror sequence)? Her reaction to the rabble, saving the General. embracing the railwayman to let the General escape? Her death?
13. Leo as spy, theatrical man in Russia, transferring to Hollywood?
14. The General's aide. wearing his coat and smoking the cigarettes. his reaction against the General at the Revolution and abusing him? The assistant director and the resemblance to the aide?
15. The military, the revolutionary, the train, the reaction of the Russian people compared with the American extras being herded in the breadline?
16. Themes of the '20s? Social, socialist, American, capitalist? Hollywood? The American dream?
