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Destiny

1921 1h 38m Fantasy Drama List
80% Tomatometer 25 Reviews 88% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Fritz Lang directed this silent film about a woman who pleads with the Grim Reaper to spare her lover's life.
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Destiny

Critics Reviews

View All (25) Critics Reviews
Fred Schader Variety There is practically nothing to the picture outside of the photography that will appeal. Dec 21, 2023 Full Review NYT Staff New York Times An occasionally effective but none the less depressing German production... Fritz Lang produced this weird, symbolical picture about five years ago, and it seems as if the American cutter had been forced to draw its dramatic teeth. Dec 19, 2023 Full Review Tara Brady Irish Times Its key horrors and delights - an owl in the moonlight, a midget presiding over a cockfight, a secret lover buried alive - are all the more searing. Rated: 5/5 Jun 29, 2017 Full Review M.H. Shapiro Billboard Any ordinarily good Hollywood product will probably please and prove more enjoyable to the average patron than this importation which taxes one too much to remember what it is all about. Dec 20, 2023 Full Review Jeremy Carr Vague Visages Destiny arrives at its final satisfying destination as a poetic and deeply affecting film, an ethereal meditation from a now legendary filmmaker... Nov 15, 2023 Full Review Bertram Higgins The Spectator It is one of three very remarkable German productions (the other two, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Street, will be released shortly) that are bound, sooner or later, to effect radical changes in the standards of film-making. Jul 2, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member I was blown away by Fritz Lang's "weary death". Even today when we have the capability to make something more "advanced", I feel like movies don't have this kind of scope. Today's glut of mediocre, CGI-stuffed superhero films made me think that the limitations in technology during this era paradoxically allowed for more creativity. Dreamy and myth-like, this film sends the protagonist through three historical periods, complete with gorgeous sets and costumes, to make a trade with the specter of Death for the life of her lover. The evocative figure of Death would appear in later films, such as Bergman's "The Seventh Seal". The depiction of ancient China was definitely Orientalist, but its also the most lavish and remarkable of the film's sections. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member I loved this film. Starts off slow and builds to a climactic and beautiful ending which has stuck with me. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie (later released under the titles Destiny and Behind the Wall) features some of the same set designers who worked on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Written and directed by Fritz Lang, the film offers the three lead actors in multiple roles, along with a few of the supporting cast similarly appearing more than once. It was inspired by an Indian mythological tale, Sati Savitri, which in Hindu mythology, depicts a devoted wife who was able to bring her husband back from the grasp of the God of Death. Lang's film was created soon after his mother died; it reveals his feelings about life and death. Death's ghostly appearance was derived from a childhood dream that Lang had when he was extremely ill during childhood. There are characters with similar appearances in his later films Metropolis and While the City Sleeps. When first released, German critics were not positive, but French critics and audiences loved it, resulting in later success in Germany. Its art direction, photography, and special effects have been widely praised throughout many years. Avant-garde/surrealist director Luis Buñuel, who with Salvador Dali made the disturbing short film Un Chien Andalou (aka An Andalusian Dog) loved The Weary Death, stating that it made him realize that films were going to be his future. Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Fairbanks, and Ingmar Bergman also were highly impressed and influenced. Appearing in The Weary Death is the intense-featured Rudolf Klein-Rogge, who not only was uncredited as the murderous criminal in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, but also featured in Lang's Metropolis and as the criminal mastermind in Dr. Mabuse the Gambler and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Though working with Lang multiple times, Klein-Rogge's wife Thea von Harbou left him to marry Lang. Regardless, all three worked together on The Weary Death and numerous other films. Bernhard Goetzke's appearance is similar to how Fritz Lang himself appeared in The Plague in Florence, and how Conrad Veidt looked in the bookstore scenes of Uncanny Tales. The film's creative tinting in various scenes is effective heightening the drama and tension. The set design is highly creative and impressive, capturing the appearance of each location. Special effects such as the army of miniature soldiers and horses that emerge from a box below the magician's legs are extremely well-done. It appears that the film company, Decla-Bioscop, spent a 1921-era fortune on this production. A wonderfully restored version of this film was released by Kino in 2016 on Blu-ray, aided by the F.W. Murnau Foundation. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review jacob d Lang's Destiny is beautiful, eerie, somber, and moving, superior in many ways to Nosferatu, his most famous work. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member It's been a long time since a movie made me feel emotions. And it just so happens to be a silent film from the master of Expressionism; the stories connected by live and death are heartfelt and sad, and the present story is a great look at how valuable life is to protect. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review andrey k Oh, the German expressionism and its tendency towards heavier themes, like confronting the Death, particularly in this movie. It's an anthology movie consisting of one main plot and three different stories within it bound by one theme of rescuing your loved one from the grasp of death. This style was used in the later movie Waxworks. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Destiny

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Cast & Crew

Faust 91% 91% Faust A Matter of Life and Death 97% 93% A Matter of Life and Death The Seventh Seal 93% 93% The Seventh Seal Liliom 100% 77% Liliom Phantom 43% 62% Phantom Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis Fritz Lang directed this silent film about a woman who pleads with the Grim Reaper to spare her lover's life.
Director
Fritz Lang
Producer
Erich Pommer
Screenwriter
Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou
Production Co
Decla-Bioscop AG
Genre
Fantasy, Drama
Rerelease Date (Theaters)
May 20, 2016
Release Date (Streaming)
Jul 15, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$12.2K
Runtime
1h 38m
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