Horst_In_Translation Review of The Surrender of Tournavos

The Surrender of Tournavos (1897)

Decent depiction of war activity

[4/10 · 13 October 2013]

This short film has surely certain historic significance. We see a bunch of soldiers fighting and firing hard in order to keep their castle but before half of the films slightly under 60 seconds is over they realize they can't succeed and retreat. Promptly the enemy forces climb over the wall and the second half of the film is theirs. Now that they're inside, the next obstacle is a heavy door, but even this one can't stop them as they brought dynamite with them. Everybody takes a step back, one guy lights it and goes back in safety again and BOOM. Explosion and the door is a thing of the past. As we see the enemy forces rush inside, the curtain falls. Pretty good reenactment of war action by Méliès here who shows he's also the master of explosion when it's not one of his magic-themed films, but instead a brutal depiction of combat.