The Surrender of Tournavos (1897) User Reviews

Backdrops

[boblipton · 5/10 · 13 March 2008]

This is a nice little war scene: some Zoaves spike a petard to a door and blow it up in what is supposed to be, I suppose, Tournavos. A fairly good reenactment for the era, but nothing outstanding..... except for the set design. Have you ever notice how three-dimensional and realistic even the most fantastic of Melies' sets look? He drew them himself. There's certainly more variation than in that single field in New Jersey in which Edison's unit shot all their battle scenes.

This is one of the many previously lost or infrequently seen Melies pictures that have been made available by Serge Bromberg, David Shepherd and a myriad of other hands in the newly issued DVD set GEORGES MELIES: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA. Required viewing for anyone interested in the history of movies ..... and a lot of fun.

The Surrender of Tournavos review

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 21 April 2020]

Neat little war scene from Georges Melies. Extremely primitive by today's standards but superior to most other movies of the time.

Decent depiction of war activity

[Horst_In_Translation · 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.

What a Convincing Set

[Tornado_Sam · 25 August 2018]

Considering how there was barely any acting, direction, or writing when it came to the filmmaking around the turn of the century, this is an outstanding work. Not only does it include some realistic gun-smoke and a decent explosion, "The Surrender of Tournavos" uses trained actors (all unidentified now) with extremely convincing costumes and an amazingly convincing set. In fact, among all the set designs I've seen from this entrepreneur, this has to be one of the most convincing. Even now it's possible I would've fallen for its realism had the action not been so impossible to catch live.

The short recreates a scene from the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, so it's obvious Méliès was trying to fool his audiences into believing this to be the real thing. At only a minute long, several soldiers fight against the Greeks by shooting at them over the walls of a fort. However, eventually they break through so the soldiers must flee into the fort. From there, the Greeks use explosives to get into the building and the film ends.

Even though Méliès was known for his trick films, shorts such as these demonstrate how far ahead his filmmaking was from others of the time--that is, the various things he could accomplish that others had not. While there's nothing here that makes "The Surrender of Tournavos" feel like a Méliès work, it is still very impressive and one that film historians will want to check out--even if for the set alone.

Purposes Are Important

[Hitchcoc · 4/10 · 10 November 2017]

I think that context is really critical in evaluating these snippets from early cinema. For those that have no experience with what combat is other than the primitive still photographs, this little film gives a feel for the fortunes of war. While it is lacking in an explanation (which may have been the case at that time) we at least get a sense of things. The special effects are laughable by modern standards, but try putting yourself in this milieu.

Surrender of Tournavoa

[Michael_Elliott · 28 March 2008]

Surrender of Tournavos, The (1897)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka La Prise de Tournavos

Here's a Melies film that doesn't contain any magic tricks or anything to do with the supernatural. In the film, four soldiers are against a brick wall trying to defend their city but the enemy eventually breaks in and uses dynamite to break through a wall. This short doesn't contain anything Melies is really known for but it does contain some nice action scenes within its short running time. The film has some nice direction and it's certainly better made than the majority of the action films made at this point in history. If you're new to the director then this isn't the best place to start but it's interesting for fans.