Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Manhatta (1921)

This impressionistic short film, directed by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler, is reputed to be the first American avant-garde film.

The filmmakers state their love for the city of New York through their montage presentation of images of tall skyscrapers, construction activity, high-angle street views, waterfront scenes and observations of city inhabitants intercut with poetic intertitles inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem, “Mannahatta” from Leaves of Grass (1900).

This musing metropolitan examination predates Robert Flaherty’s Twenty-Four-Dollar Island (1927), which is undeniably influenced by Strand and Sheeler’s film in its own choice of shots, camera movement and subject matter. The two films are interesting programming pairs, to be compared, studied and appreciated for their mutual visual impressions of Manhattan.

— Carl Bennett

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from the 2K high-resolution digital restoration of the film supervised by Bruce Posner and prepared from the sole surviving 35mm print preserved in 1949 presumably held by the British Film Institute. The scan is evenly balanced in its greyscale range, sharp of image detail, and film grain in the source print is present in the presentation but is controlled. Image stabilization and dust-busting has been digitally performed.

The film is accompanied by a pleasant orchestral music score composed by Donald Sosin and performed by the Slovak Sinfonietta as conducted by Peter Breiner. This is an excellent example of how music should accompany a silent era film.

This is the best home video edition of the film that is available and it is highly recommended.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is also available directly from . . .

This film was transferred from a print held by the British Film Institute.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on synthesizer and digital piano by Donald Sosin.

This is our recommended edition of this film on DVD home video.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This DVD edition has been transferred from a good to very-good print that is greyish in its highlights.

The film is accompanied by a music score that appears to originate from the source print soundtrack.

As this presentation is slightly rougher than that of the Unseen Cinema boxset noted above, we do not recommend it to those collecting this film on DVD home video. While the Unseen Cinema set is more expensive, the sheer number of films makes it worthwhile.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .