Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

MisterWhiplash In Destiny, everything with Death, a character who is one of the most striking and ominous figures in silent cinema (certainly from Germany which is saying a lot) as portrayed by Bernhard Goetze, and the woman (Lili Dagover, who I didn't realize until looking her up that she played other characters here) who is trying to save her man from Death's grasp in the opening 25 and closing 15 minutes, and how Death creates his gloomy but visually appealing enclave (all those candles and the space that's created, damn) which is closed off by a wall in town and how this woman goes through her own struggle to overcome him, is outstanding. The three "Stories" for the three candles - each representing someone that will die unless she does something to stop them, thus saving her man's life - not so much.Never is the direction ever poor or lacking, but I wasn't engaged in those stories how I was hoping for. They're all relatively brief, and while clearly Lang's aim is to make this a sort of fable or series of myths (remember he also did the Nibelungen films), you have little time to invest in any of these characters - all that's there is to find them, all of the people in worlds of royalty whether it's in the middle east, Europe or Asia, kind of interesting to look at. I can definitely see why this inspired Bunuel to become a filmmaker, but compared to work like Dr. Mabuse and Metropolis, it doesn't hold up quite as well (needless to say I'm sure it would still hold up over like a thousand other silent films, it's just a personal preference with regard to Lang's silent features).And yeah, as others have noted, it's kinda racist with the imagery in these stories, though mostly with the Asian 'Verse' section. In a way that doesn't bother me so much as it is Lang's preference for style over substance. Again, when the style is so intense and spectacular at times - all those dissolves and moments, like the carpet "flying up" into the air - it may be hard to complain. I think the expectation for practically all of Lang's films to be masterpieces may have worked against me in loving it, but suffice to say if you're looking for only the visuals you'll certainly get a lot out of it, and those first, second and sixth verses are potent. If the whole film had been involved with the young woman, young man and Death in the town, I would've loved it.

gavin6942 When a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.This is the sort of movie that made an impact in its own time. Douglas Fairbanks purchased the American rights, to delay its general American release while he copied the effects of the Persian segment for his 1924 "The Thief of Baghdad". Luis Bunuel has said this is the film that got him interested in movies, and apparently Alfred Hitchcock has praised it as well.I would not praise it quite on the level either of them did. It is not Fritz Lang's best film by a long shot, nor the best film of the German Expressionist era. But still worth seeing, if for no other reason than it is a Lang film, and stars Lil Dagover, arguably the greatest actress of the Weimar period.

wmorrow59 The biographical entry for Fritz Lang in the invaluable World Film Directors reference book offers a revealing quote. It seems that when he was a teenager he became gravely ill, and at the peak of his delirium experienced a vivid hallucination. As Lang later described it, "I saw myself face to face, not terrifying, but unmistakable, with Death . . . I don't know whether I should call the feeling I experienced at that moment one of fear. It was horror, but not panic. I recovered quickly, but the love of death, compounded of horror and affection . . . stayed with me and became a part of my films." Lang, who was Austrian, served in the Army during the First World War where he saw considerable combat and, of course, encountered death on a horrific scale. (He also lost the use of his right eye.) While still in the service he launched his career in the movies by submitting screenplays to producer Joe May, and soon afterward acted in two of May's films, playing the Angel of Death in "Hilde Warren und der Tod." Lang began directing in 1919 and was successful almost immediately but remained largely unknown outside Germany until his first genuinely personal project, "Der Müde Tod," burst upon the scene in 1921 and became an international sensation. Lang's timing was perfect, for in the troubled period following the war interest in spiritualism and the afterlife was intense. This film represented the director's most thorough exploration of the fever dream of his adolescence, for here Lang utilized elements gathered from the myth and folkloric traditions of various cultures to explore a question posed by the leading lady to the Grim Reaper himself: Is Love stronger than Death?In the opening scenes we're introduced to a happy young couple who intend to marry. On their travels they encounter a stranger, a gaunt and unsmiling figure in a black cloak who is heading for the same village that is their destination; the very sight of him darkens the atmosphere and kills their joyous mood. The stranger is Death himself, who seeks to purchase land owned by the village elders. The stranger informs the elders that he is weary-- from his exertions during the Great War? --and wishes to settle down. Once he buys land the stranger erects an estate surrounded by an impossibly high wall, a wall with no apparent door or entryway, and his next act is to claim the soul of the Young Man. The Young Woman searches the village and fails to find her fiancé, but when she takes poison she is able to pass through the wall and confront Death. He takes her to a room filled with candles representing the souls of humanity. When the Young Woman demands that Death restore her fiancé to life he agrees to do so only if she can defeat him, and he gives her three opportunities.The Young Woman's three chances to defeat Death unfold in the form of three tales set in disparate parts of the world in three different historical periods: Persia in the days of the Caliphate, Renaissance Venice, and Imperial China. Three incarnations of her Young Man are threatened with extinction, and three incarnations of the Young Woman have a chance to rescue him. These stories make up the bulk of the movie and each is longer and more elaborate than the one preceding. Eventually, when the Young Woman proves unable to beat Death she is given one final chance to win back her fiancé, but when she finds the price demanded of her too high to pay, the lovers are nonetheless reunited in the afterlife in a strangely gratifying finale.The historical adventures take place in highly stylized worlds, especially the Chinese segment, but even the film's Middle-European framing story features expressionistic structures that resemble stage sets, just as the (unnamed) young man and woman at the center of these events are meant to embody folkloric archetypes rather than dimensional characters. Lang's Persia, Venice and China suggest a child's notion of what these places might be like; the palaces have the look of enormous doll-houses. And of course the magical element is derived from fairy tales: the Chinese magician summons a miniature army of soldiers to amuse the Emperor, and is himself later turned into a cactus (one of the film's most memorable and disturbing images), while the Emperor is a fairy tale villain with grotesquely long claw-like fingernails. "Der Müde Tod" is, with Maurice Tourneur's 1918 classic "The Blue Bird," one of the cinema's first great flights of fantasy, suffused with imaginative effects and whimsical touches but undergirded with a deep sense of sadness.Like many silent films this one has been shown in a variety of editions over the years, but the restoration completed in 2000 that is now available on DVD from Image Entertainment appears to be the closest to Lang's original version. This edition recreates the color tints of 1921 and the type-faces of the original title cards, which attempted to capture the exotic calligraphic styles of the three foreign lands of the adventure stories. (My only criticism is that I found the "Persian" type rather difficult to read.) This disc also boasts a beautiful score by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, music that enhances the visuals without drawing undue attention to itself. For those who can't attend a public screening of this rarely shown gem the Image DVD is about as good as silent movies get on the home screen; and Fritz Lang's "Der Müde Tod" is one of the most fascinating silent movies.

dchozenwan I used to associate Fritz Lang only with the great movies "Metropolis", "M", and "Dr. Mabuse". This mindset suddenly changed last night when I watched a screening of Destiny in Manila. (A screening sponsored by the Goethe Institute).Before the screening I asked myself: How come I didn't hear of this movie before ? How does this compare with "Metropolis", "M", and "Dr. Mabuse" ? Upon watching the movie, I felt privileged I was given a chance to watch a movie so rare, yet at par with Lang's best works. I told myself, "I struck gold !!!" Destiny is a very vivid depiction of the power of love over death. I was astounded by the sheer imagery, and the poetic resonance.The production design and effects are ahead of its time. I didn't realize that a very smooth "ghost effect" have been already achieved since 1921.From the background of the village to the stranger's appearance, I was reminded of Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" (A movie on my wish list. My exposure to this movie is through still images I saw in a book on cinema.) I was amazed with the way they recreated Turkey, Venice, and China. It offered me a surrealistic experience, that some fantasy movies of today fail to do.Following is a my short interpretation of this wonderful movie: A couple on their way to honeymoon is the prime of life. A "stranger" (Death), suddenly comes unexpected. Bernhard Goetzke impressively played the role. His aura exuded with a haunting eeriness that was etched on my mind.The stranger in the village is the subject of endless discussion by the dignitaries. It just reflects the enigma of death itself.The couple met the stranger. A few moments later, his man and the stranger disappeared. The woman was distraught over having her fiancée fetched by the stranger. Distraught on learning his abduction, she sought Death, and begged for her loved one. She was given three chances on three different locales, and she failed it all.She was given one more chance: to find a person who is willing to give his life for her fiancée. She found an old man, a beggar, and a number of sick people. All of them has one reply: " Not one day, not one hour, not one breathe." It just showed me how important life is and the unyielding conviction to cling to it.Out of her undying love for her fiancée, the film leads to the philosophical resolution that glued me to my seat after the screening. It pushed me to stop for a while and think about a few things.