Review of Hypocrites

After watching Hypocrites, it is interesting to me that even in the early years of filmmaking, movies could be extremely complex and thought provoking. Hypocrites is definitely those two things. The writer and director of the film, Lois Weber, uses the characters of a preacher and Truth (portrayed as a naked woman) to reveal the hypocrisy of society. Though Weber's intentions were most likely to speak on morality, it is interesting that she chose to use a fully nude woman throughout the film to draw in an audience that would not have otherwise seen the film. It was also surprising to me that this film would have been viewed by religious audiences with such unapologetic nudity. However, I will say that whatever could be viewed as indecent may have been made up for by the moral of the film. As the preacher succumbs to a dream, he is taken to an earlier time when he first finds Truth. The preacher then goes around aiming to show Truth to people, only to get rejected every time. In each situation, Truth reveals the true character of people to be corrupt. I feel that the overall story of the film was very well written. However, I found it a little bit difficult to get into the film because of the melodramatic style of acting. Because there was no sound in film at the time, the acting seemed to be more expressive and a lot less realistic. If anything made this film difficult to watch, it would be that. Although, overall I enjoyed the film and felt that Weber was successful in presenting her case of morality. I would be interested in seeing what a modern cast and crew could do with the story. I would love to see someone else's spin on it.