Bizarre. That was the first thought I had when viewing The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in class this week. I’m sure I can speak for most of us when I say that film was unlike anything I had ever seen before.
For starters, it was silent. The actors’ mouths were moving but no words were coming out of them. That was a strange concept for me. When I think of films, my mind automatically goes to blockbusters like The Avengers or Wonder Woman – movies with lots of dialogue and lots of action.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is nothing like those movies. In addition to being silent, it is also doesn’t seem to be a high budget production. There isn’t a multitude of graphic effects or a celebrity soundtrack playing in the background. The setting for the movie is much more simplistic. The sets are plain. They consist of lightly decorated courtyards and rooms. None of the luxurious items found in current films are present – which of course is a direct result of the fact that this movie was produced in the year 1920 and many of the advanced technologies we have now weren’t in existence then.
Taking the time period of the film into consideration, helped me appreciate it more. At face value, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari doesn’t seem like much. It appears to be a boring, drawn out movie and quite frankly at certain times it is. I will not lie and say that I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this film because I most certainly did not. But there were aspects of it that I did admire. For instance, I thought Conrad Veidt, the actor who played Cesare, was phenomenal. I don’t care what anybody says, it’s not easy to play a mindless, controlled puppet. And to play it well.
Another thing, I really enjoyed, and this may sound weird, was the makeup the actors wore, I think it really added to the overall creepy vibe of the film. It made it seem more dramatic, more chilling, and more haunting.
If I were to create my own murder mystery, I would use the entirety of New York City – all five boroughs – as my playing ground. The murder would take place in Forest Park – a block away from my home in Richmond Hill, Queens. It would be an investigation in to the death of a local favorite – our very own stray, Ranger the German shepherd.
Ranger’s owner passed away three years ago of old age. He was a kind, gentle man whom everyone in the town loved and revered. His death was a solemn time for the whole community. Not only did we lose the man who greeted us every morning, the man who sat on his front steps every night smoking his pipe, the man who gave out the best Halloween treats. We also lost a friend.
Ranger was taken away. The old man’s son adopted him. My sister and I thought we would never see him again. In all honesty, it broke our hearts a little. Ranger was the dog we always wanted, but never had.
One night, as I was tucked in bed, I heard a loud noise – a bark. (Being that this is a silent film, you would see the word “bark” appear in little bubbles on the screen.) I didn’t think anything of it. There were plenty of dogs in my neighborhood. Nothing to worry about. But as time passed, the barking continued. It grew louder and louder. It was at the point where it would be best identified as a howl. My dad flickered on the lights and went to look out the window. There, right across the street from us, was Ranger sitting on the old man’s front steps. Ranger was home.
The son never came looking for him. Ranger became the town dog. We all fed him, patted him on the head when we saw him, and stopped our cars when he wanted to cross the street. A few of us tried to take him in, but Ranger was never quite content until he was nestled in front of the old man’s house.
Then one day, no one saw him. He wasn’t heard or spotted. He didn’t drop by anyone’s house for a meal. It was weird. No one knew what to do.
And then we turned on the news. The headline read “Local dog found shot and left for dead.” Ranger had been murdered.
Who would murder a dog? A beloved creature? A town favorite?
To say we were appalled would be the least. But what happened next was even more horrific. A day later, three dogs, in various Brooklyn neighborhoods, were shot. The day after that, someone entered a Manhattan pet store and shot all the dogs inside. In Staten Island, someone broke into an animal shelter, killed all the dogs, and piled them up by the front door.
Someone was going around murdering innocent animals. What kind of monster would do that?
After three months, we found our answer. After three months of tirelessly chasing suspect after suspect, we caught the culprit. After three months of dogs being massacred every single day, we found the killer.
Who he was, well that’s something I can’t share with you. Not right now anyway.
I have to save something for the sequel.
-Alyssa Motilal
