by Laura Lai
Film’s Title: The General Died at Dawn Lead Actors: Madeleine Carroll (Judy Perrie), Gary Cooper (O’Hara), Akim Tamiroff (Gen. Yang), Porter Hall (Peter Perrie), Dudley Digges (Mr. Wu) Director: Lewis Milestone The General Died at Dawn is a black and white movie made in 1936 on a story by Charles G. Booth (screenplay by Clifford Odets). In 1937, the American Film Awards nominated this movie at the category ‘Actor in Supporting Role’ thanks to the outstanding performance of Akim Tamiroff in the role of Gen. Yang. This movie was also nominated for the ‘Cinematography’ category. It is a war and adventure movie. The action of the story takes place in China, in the 1930s. The soldier of fortunes, O’Hara (Gary Cooper), is caught in the fight between two generals, Gen. Yang (Akim Tamiroff) and Gen. Wu (Dudley Digges), in order to control the Northern provinces of China. Each of the two generals tried to purchase arms to win the fight for the provinces. Peter Perrie (Porter Hall) is an American who had little to live, who wanted to return home with his daughter (Madeleine Carroll), but who needed money for the trip. His daughter trapped O’Hara by convincing him to take the train instead of the plane, in order to turn him in to the soldiers of Gen. Yang. From an artistic point of view, the director used mirrors and round windows resembling to mirrors to visually tell the story of this war. It goes from simple to more and more complex. For example, in minute 12, O’Hara is dressing in front of a mirror; in another scene, Madeleine is watching the mirror, and in minute 17, in the train compartment scene, the two of them have a conversation: Madeleine at the right and the reflection in the mirror of O’Hara at the left. In the boat scene, O’Hara shaves in a small mirror. The train scene, when O’Hara is caught by the soldiers of Gen. Yang, has round windows mirror-like that complete the scene by visualizing what characters do in two sections of the train. The artistic climax is reached in minutes 47-48 when by rolling in first the left up corner of the screen, then the right, then bottom left and bottom right, the director visually told the viewer what distinct characters were simultaneously doing. Nowadays, in some movies, the screen is divided into four and viewers see what each character is doing. However, for 1936, this must have been innovative in terms of technique and the rolling in the corners adds visual art to the storytelling. In this movie, mirror and round windows mirror-type are like a leitmotif. I particularly wanted to stress and to remind that not only because it is artistic but also because I know it is hard to write using a leitmotif. In my writings, I also use leitmotives. I used once ‘time’, another time ‘lights’, etc. Writing has its own rules, and by wanting to have a leitmotif, the writer adds to the complexity of the writing. It is hard to deliver a text that from the beginning to the end to include the leitmotif and to perfectly contextualize it. It is the great merit of both the screenwriter and of the director to have it implemented the best visual way. Last but not least, I want to you invite to have a look at The General Died at Dawn review in The New York Times--an article from 1936. Enjoy the movie!
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