Silent Era : Home Video Reviews

Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > The Wrath of the Gods

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

The Wrath
of the Gods
(1914)

Sessue Hayakawa became something of a Hollywood movie idol with his starring appearance in this proto-disaster film produced by Thomas H. Ince, with Tsuru Aoki, future director Frank Borzage, and an erupting volcano in support.

The film has been restored by the George Eastman Museum film archive.

The Milestone Cinematheque
2008 DVD edition

The Dragon Painter (1919), color-toned black & white and black & white, 54 minutes, not rated, with The Wrath of the Gods (1914), color-tinted black & white and color-toned black & white, 58 minutes, not rated, and Screen Snapshots, Issue No. 20 (1921), black & white, 5 minutes, not rated.

Milestone Film & Video, distributed by New Yorker Video (now distributed by Kino Lorber), MILE00108, UPC 7-84148-01084-7, ISBN 978-1-933920-078.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 5.0 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 18 March 2008.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 8 / additional content: 7 / overall: 6.

This Hayakawa double-bill DVD edition features The Wrath of the Gods transferred from the restoration by the George Eastman Museum film archive. It appears that the source material was a 16mm reduction print preserved in 35mm.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by Marco Lienhard and Mark Izu.

Supplemental material includes a Hayakawa appearance in a novelty short film; the original script for The Wrath of the Gods; a stills gallery; an essay by Brian Taves; and the text of the source novel, The Dragon Painter by Mary McNeil Fenollosa.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.