1921: The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (102nd)

What else happened this year? Teapot Dome Scandal? Not sure, Tulsa Race Massacre happened now though. That's a bit grim.

What is the plot - in one sentence? We follow the descendants of a wealthy Argentine horseman as his daughters return to France and Germany respectively, with their husbands, bringing their own children along.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? The German side of the family live German lives, while the French side of the family is beset with affairs, dancing, and the purchase of fancy castles.

At the end of it, all four of the male heirs are dead in the Great War, and the German’s wife scolds her husband for forcing the family to leave Argentina, and the French son’s lover is left looking after her now blinded husband. It took a bit of a turn.

What is the meaning of the title? There’s a mystic who lives above the French Grandson’s apartment (he’s ‘Latin’ in that he uses it to make paintings of nude models.) The mystic, who I thought looked a little like Rasputin / a Jewish stereotype, but is able to see the literal four horsemen – we’re later introduced to them, riding in the sky, and then riding back later on after the Great War ended. It was 1921, imagine the misery that was to come.

1921 Nazi Salute. 2022 mouse pointer. In the background is a guy getting bathed: timeless.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? No! Though a dog is mistreated and there’s also a monkey butler, who becomes a monkey soldier, until his master dies. The special effects were pretty good – a battle around the French father’s castle and its destruction was pretty impressive, and even the footage of the four horsemen themselves riding in the sky was pretty good. Less convincing at this distance was the ‘Apocalyptic Beast’ = a sort of metal dragon which spewed fire from time to time. Presumably it looked scarier in 1921 than it does in 2022.

There’s also a bit of father, son kissing on the mouth too, something which I remember from the Movie ‘Wings’, which is also about young men going to war.

Any thoughts? The handsome*, French Grandson, who was the Grandfather’s favourite (the other 3, Germans, are all a bit dull) falls in love with the younger wife of one of his father’s friends. The father’s other friend pretty much encourages them to go at it. 

Anyway, they get together eventually, and he comments on her beauty, but she looks EXACTLY like every other woman in the movie. Same hair, same fashion, same make-up and slightly confused look. It’s weird. I’ll say this too, the French grandson is a handsome fella even by today’s standards – is there less room for fluctuations in fashion and style for men’s attractiveness than there is with woman? Yes.

Would you recommend this? I would, with the proviso that this is a movie from 1921, and that it starts slowly, before turning into a romance story, and then a WWI movie – think how fresh WW1 was in the Collective consciousness too. 

I’ll recommend it, even though it has a weird thing where you inherit the innate traits of your race, despite your upbringing. For example, the Argentian-born-and-raised kids of a German father take on German characteristics – stoicism and militarism. Meanwhile, the French side of the family struggle with ennui and affairs. It’s a weird thing, but reminds me of Bonanza, where the three boys all take on the character of their respective dead mothers, despite not knowing them that well.

The movie also features, that movie trope of the father ignoring the son while he goes away (he’s angry at him for boning his friend’s wife), and then showering him with affection when he’s able to see him on the front line.

I’ll also leave a little time, to tell that there was a HITLER SALUTE in the scene at the castle. It’s just a coincidence, one of the Germans is pointing up to another room, but I’m going to make it the picture for this movie.

Final thoughts? Despite an initial onslaught of text – it was probably a chapter of a book’s worth before any moving picture was shown, this was a pretty good one. Despite the age and a few drawbacks related to that, it was a surprisingly modern, story, with a lot of implied boning, and a man murdered to prevent his daughter’s war rape, and the destruction of a family by war. 

There’s a lot of adult thoughts in this story, in what was a pretty new art form, and it’s got to be given credit for that. Sure it was slow in places (the Argentinian thing at the beginning, was glacial) and that helps to explain why this movie took forever to get through for me. I watched from Paris onward in an evening – that is the final 1 hour 40. However, the first 25 minutes, which follows the grandfather in Argentina, took me literally weeks to get through. Anyway, a surprisingly modern, reasonably fast paced story after that.

I also really like the comment, as French troops head off to war, in buoyant mood and confident, that the other side is doing exactly the same thing.

I believe I have a single movie to go. I’m sure you’re as happy as I am about this. If you’d like to see the other 101, there’s a list right here. 

 

*It's Rudolph Valentino