When Will Rogers made this film in 1922, the story by Washington Irving was just 102 years old. Since then, and another century, the world has seen unbelievable change and technological advancement. What we have lost in equal measure is the magic of time, silence, imagination and great storytelling.
Not only do I find this film watchable, I appreciate the remarkable realism of the action sequences, the astonishing horsemanship of Mr. Rogers doing his own stunts and appearing to be a novice, some remarkably beautiful images of landscapes, dirt roads, old bridges and houses in the very location that partly inspired Irving's short story.
The tales of ghosts, thunder beings, old Dutch and Native American traditions could have been forgotten along this stretch of the Hudson River Valley were it not for Washington Irving. There is a multi-layered historic link to generations past in every frame of this film.
Is it my imagination or are there traces of Will Rogers' brash, western brand of humor in some of the inter-titles? If that is true, the combination of the new American West with the older traditions, spiced with European tales and superstitions, is a first, if not unique contribution to American films.
Watching this version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow can teach us some worthwhile and even entertaining values. Take yourself back 100 years to a time before sound movies, television, freeways and cell phones. You find yourself in glens of green silence, clear brooks running under old wooden bridges strong enough for horsemen, but not for cars and trucks. You get back days full of physical work with the welcome respite of reading by fading light. It becomes easier then to mentally go back in time another hundred years to a time before the railway, before photographs, before electricity (of course before codified human rights and many beneficial things) to a time when Washington Irving could have strolled through the already venerated Dutch cemetery in Tarrytown, NY, drinking in the old wives tales of Hudson Valley lore. He could have looked out across the Tappan Sea, the widest expanse of the Hudson River, long before a bridge crossing it was imagined. In our day, looking back, it may be that land, space, clean air/water and time are the most precious commodities. These are what abounded for both Irving and Rogers.
Our luxury is that we can take the time if we choose to immerse ourselves in the rich imagery of The Headless Horseman. I find the background houses, outbuildings, clothing and interiors fascinating. There may be elements there that did not exist in 1820, but most did and were used even then in much the same way. Small details of history that have never made it into books may be discovered in films such as this, even if they were unintentional at the time.
For these reasons, I give this film a 10 out of 10. It offered entertainment a century ago; now, it offers so much more.
Not only do I find this film watchable, I appreciate the remarkable realism of the action sequences, the astonishing horsemanship of Mr. Rogers doing his own stunts and appearing to be a novice, some remarkably beautiful images of landscapes, dirt roads, old bridges and houses in the very location that partly inspired Irving's short story.
The tales of ghosts, thunder beings, old Dutch and Native American traditions could have been forgotten along this stretch of the Hudson River Valley were it not for Washington Irving. There is a multi-layered historic link to generations past in every frame of this film.
Is it my imagination or are there traces of Will Rogers' brash, western brand of humor in some of the inter-titles? If that is true, the combination of the new American West with the older traditions, spiced with European tales and superstitions, is a first, if not unique contribution to American films.
Watching this version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow can teach us some worthwhile and even entertaining values. Take yourself back 100 years to a time before sound movies, television, freeways and cell phones. You find yourself in glens of green silence, clear brooks running under old wooden bridges strong enough for horsemen, but not for cars and trucks. You get back days full of physical work with the welcome respite of reading by fading light. It becomes easier then to mentally go back in time another hundred years to a time before the railway, before photographs, before electricity (of course before codified human rights and many beneficial things) to a time when Washington Irving could have strolled through the already venerated Dutch cemetery in Tarrytown, NY, drinking in the old wives tales of Hudson Valley lore. He could have looked out across the Tappan Sea, the widest expanse of the Hudson River, long before a bridge crossing it was imagined. In our day, looking back, it may be that land, space, clean air/water and time are the most precious commodities. These are what abounded for both Irving and Rogers.
Our luxury is that we can take the time if we choose to immerse ourselves in the rich imagery of The Headless Horseman. I find the background houses, outbuildings, clothing and interiors fascinating. There may be elements there that did not exist in 1820, but most did and were used even then in much the same way. Small details of history that have never made it into books may be discovered in films such as this, even if they were unintentional at the time.
For these reasons, I give this film a 10 out of 10. It offered entertainment a century ago; now, it offers so much more.