InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Ian (Flash Review)The grim reaper ain't no joke. He is a formidable foe and is hard to be sweet talked or sympathized with. The story is sparked by a woman's husband disappearing after encountering the grim reaper at an inn. Distraught, the woman later pleads with Death to give her back her husband. Not totally shot down, Death gives her a unique opportunity. What opportunity is it? Will she see her husband again in the living world as we know it? This is a well-shot and creative film that has bold effects and excellent cinematography. The opportunity will take place across the globe so there are neat cultural sets and locations. Overall, it was a clever story, not gruesome, had top notch special effects for the period and held your attention for the duration.

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.

JoeytheBrit A young couple encounter Death in a country tavern while on a journey, and he claims the man. The man's young wife tracks Death down and pleads with him to return her husband to her. He promises to do so if she can prevent any one of three imminent deaths, each represented by a burning candle that has nearly burned out.The subject of death is a ripe one for the cinema, and probably the most famous example of a living person attempting to bargain with death is Bergman's The Seventh Seal, but this silent movie from Fritz Lang is possibly more accessible to the casual viewer. Death here is something of a sympathetic character - and he is a character rather than just a representation - slavishly following the laws laid down by God, but wishing for a release from his responsibilities. He's played here by Bernhard Goetzke, a hollow-cheeked man with searing eyes who certainly looks the part.All of the principle characters play multiple roles, perhaps to emphasise the inevitability of death for us all and the futility of attempting to escape it (or maybe to cut down on costs - who knows?) The film looks great, with some striking images and impressive sets. It's true that the film does drag a little in the second act in which three short stories are played out, taking the action away from the main story and thus bringing that part of the film to a screeching halt.Der Mude Tod is one of those films that will no doubt entrance lovers of silent or early German cinema but which is unlikely to convert many to the genre. Fritz Lang's direction is crisp and imaginative and there's something almost intangible about it that suggests a young director at the outset of his career.

poe426 While certainly not Lang's finest, DESTINY is, nonetheless, an impressive film. Lang's visual acuity was obvious from the get-go, and DESTINY boasts some incredible imagery. There are shots that must be frozen and studied even as one watches the movie unfold; they're that striking. Though "Death" could've been a bit more otherworldly (see the Devil in Murnau's FAUST), Goetzke is serviceable: his grim mein is very much in keeping with his job description; still, in light of some of the more striking depictions of He Who Waits to have sprung from the mind of Man over the eons, it would've been nice to have seen a no-holds-barred Fritz Lang take on Death. (A quibble, perhaps, but a valid one.) The fx are truly stunning- in particular the sequence where a parade of phantoms come across a hill and march inexorably past the heroine and through a graveyard wall to... their DESTINY.