The Ring Reviews

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since I'm a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock, I was really eager to check it out. So far, it is his oldest movie I have seen. To be honest, with most silent dramas, I rather have a hard time to get into the whole thing. I mean, basically, you spent the whole duration trying to read the lips of the characters to figure what the hell they are actually talking about. Without dialogs, movies actually radically changes, in my opinion, with a greater focus on body language and weird faces. Still, with a guy like Hitchcock in the directing chair, you are bound to have some pretty nice shots and I wasn't disappointed. Recently, I saw ‘Easy Virtue’, another very old silent feature directed by Alfred Hitchcock and I preferred this one. Indeed, the plot was a little bit more intriguing and even though it deals with boxing, Hitchcock was obviously more interested by what was happening outside the ring. I especially enjoyed all those lugubrious characters involved in the boxing business (did you notice that most of characters had some pretty rotten teeth? I’m not sure if it was done on purpose but it was a nice touch). To conclude, even though it is not a masterpiece whatsoever, it is actually pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Alfred Hitchcock’s work.

What a great film. I can't understand why this doesn't get more appreciation than it does. On the surface, it's a simple sporting tale as a young man progresses in his boxing career to win back his wife from another lover of hers. And yet, there's so much more to this film than that, mainly the astounding and ingenious technical aspects to the film such as the the scene of the notice board changing throughout the seasons as Carl Brisson's "One Round Jack" defeats his opponents until he is left fighting Ian Hunter's Australian champion who stole his wife's love. The visual metaphors such as the snake bangle reresenting the original sin of Adam and Eve as well as every circular object reffering back to the film's title is just brilliant, and it amazes me that Hitchcock uses such metaphors so early on his career. Hithcock's "Pure cinema" ideal is used to perfection here as of course, there is no sound. The only thing that let's the film down is it's ending which I find rather difficult to believe. Other than that, The Ring is excellent.