Silent Movies For People Who Don't Like Silent Movies

As promised, I've thrown together a preliminary list of what I consider some of the best movies for silent film neophytes to watch.

They've been chosen for their accessibility and entertainment value, or for the sheer, indisputable force of their awesomeness. I don't consider this a top ten list or a best of, or even a list of personal favorites (though it skews very closely to the latter). Rather, this is a list that, in my opinion, would convert someone who claimed that silent movies "weren't their thing."

It's funny how often people lump "silent movies" into one category, like it's a separate genre or something. That's as ludicrous as lumping together all "black and white" movies. Some people say modern audiences just don't connect to silent movies, which I think is bollocks: the first thirty minutes of Wall-E were silent, and plenty of people connected with that. Well the acting is stagey, they might say, or the plots are sentimental or gimmicky, to which I can only reply, "What movies are *you* watching?"

Hence, this list. The movies here are so brilliant, so powerfull, so visually arresting and profoundly human that, if you watch all the movies on this list and still conclude you don't like silent movies, well, then, you really just don't like movies. I present to you:

The Last Laugh (Murnau)

Sunrise (more Murnau)

Sherlock Jr./Keaton Shorts

Modern Times/City Lights (Neither strictly silent)

Lonesome, if you can catch it at a theatre (also not strictly silent)

The Wind (starring Lilian Gish)

Ernst Lubitsch comedies (The Doll)

Josef Von Sternberg's The Docks of New York and Underworld

Griffith's Broken Blossoms; if you're into Victorian theatre, especially

Greed

Sadie Thompson (Raoul Walsh)

Laurel and Hardy shorts, esp. Stan Laurel shorts, and specifically Mud and Sand/Mighty Like a Moose (Charley Chase)

Battleship Potemkin/ Intolerance/Birth of a Nation/Metropolis/ Man With A Movie Camera (all the "big" movies that I wouldn't actually recommend as the first thing to watch, but feel compelled to include on this list due to their stature ... plus they're mostly awesome)