Paramount Presents has added The Sheik to their Presents line for its 100th anniversary. An iconic, and important film in the history of cinema, worth checking out if you've never seen it, and given a great treatment by Paramount.
“The Sheik opened at the height of a nation’s appetite for motion pictures and sealed Rudolph Valentino’s status as a heartthrob Hollywood legend. While his untimely death would break the hearts of his adoring fans, the movie broke box office records for Paramount Pictures in 1921. One hundred years later, this essential romance of a charming Arabian sheik’s infatuation with an Englishwoman endures. This limited-edition Blu-ray includes a new look at the classic with Professor Leslie Midkiff DeBauche, and an original music score composed by Roger Bellon.”
It’s hard to imagine we’re approaching a time period when films are celebrating their 100th year anniversary. As a medium, film has only existed for a miniscule amount of time in our society, but has changed so much, so fast over the past century. The Sheik celebrates the achievements in technology at the time, delivering a compelling story without the use of sound, scarce dialogue, giving glimpses of faraway lands and customs the American public may never have thought they’d ever see. This Paramount Presents line is the perfect vehicle to release this silent classic, celebrating the film, the craft, as well as their studio that has endured over a century.
The Sheik tells the story of Ahmed Ben Hassan (Valentino), then son of an English/Spanish descent who was adopted by a local Sheik who discovered him alone after his parents were killed in the desert. Given a modern education, he’s called back to take over after his adopted father dies. While participating in his local customs, he meets an Englishwoman, Diana Mayo (Agnes Ayres) and is immediately taken with her. As is his custom as Sheik, when he sees something he wants, he takes it, so he kidnaps her and takes her to his home in the desert, forcing her into a life of his servitude. His education clashes with the beliefs and customs he’s lived with for so long, gradually finding what he’s done to be less appealing to him, all the while Diana pleads with him to release her. A visit from an old friend reminds him of the man he could be, and allows Diana to see that as well, but not before a sinister bandit steals Diana for his own.
What’s most interesting about The Sheik, is that Rudolph Valentino’s character is pretty despicable with no real redeeming qualities at the beginning. While this of course is done often to show change, he’s just so off-putting at the start, looking like a complete madman at times as he forces himself on this poor woman he’s abducted, there just doesn’t seem to be any possible way he could be redeemed. Admittedly, film storytelling hadn’t got the beats quite right at the time, and while you do feel as he is a good man at heart, there just aren’t that many situations that demonstrate that to us. For one, the film is only 66 minutes long, and lack of locations and severely limited dialogue hinders this as well. Still, the character, and Valentino’s performance, are very memorable and have served the film well over these past one hundred years.
Video
The Sheik is presented in 1080p High Definition 1.33:1 in Black & White. The press release that was included with this disc to review mentions the efforts that were taken to achieve the best possible picture quality. This isn’t mentioned anywhere on the disc in any introduction or text on the packaging, so I thought it noteworthy to include in this review to further appreciate the film, as well as Paramount and the Paramount Presents line.
It states: “The Sheik restoration employed modern technology so viewers can experience the original beauty of this monumental silent film. Since original negatives for silent films rarely exist, Paramount searched the world for the best elements and used a print and an intermediate element called a fine grain. One source of the film yielded better results for image quality, another for intertitles. One of the elements was “stretch-printed” and had to be adjusted digitally during the restoration process. In the silent era there was no standard frame rate, so stretch printing was done to show silent films at 24 frames per second. In addition, tints and tones were digitally applied, guided by an original continuity script from the Paramount archive. The result is the best picture quality The Sheik has had since it was originally shown in theaters 100 years ago.”
As you can imagine, for a film of this age, there is plenty of wear and tear in the form of scratches throughout the entirety of the film, most notably in the intertitles. However, these don’t hinder the enjoyment or viewing ability of the film in any way, as there are also scenes of very good clarity that look astonishing. The tinting is interesting, using orange hues for a more ‘desert’ feel, and blue tones for night sequences, that obviously were filmed in daylight. It’s an impressive feat that Paramount has gone to for this 100th anniversary edition, and should deserve some recognition elsewhere besides a press-release that won’t be seen by many.
Audio
The audio is presented in Dolby TrueHD 2.0, which comprises the score by Roger Bellon. It’s an interesting accompaniment to the film, some unique and stylized instrumentals that set the tone of the film nicely.
Special Features
A somewhat short, although informative look at the film is included on this Paramount Presents release. As usual in this line, the set includes a slip-cover that opens to reveal the film poster of The Sheik, and is the 25th release in the Paramount Presents line. This also includes a digital copy.
- Desert Heat: 100 Years With The Sheik
The Sheik may not hold the excitement that films of today may bring, but its importance in film history, the treatment by Paramount, as well as the performance of Rudolph Valentino, whom I didn’t know much about going into this, is worth it to pick this one up and check it out. The Sheik is available now from the Paramount Presents line.
