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The Docks of New York
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== Themes == [[File:The Docks of New York (film) 1928. Josef von Sternberg, dir L-R Betty Compson, George Bancroft, Clyde Cook.jpg|thumb|L-R: Mae (Betty Compson), Bill (George Bancroft), "Sugar" Steve (Clyde Cook). The "sewing scene" - An "emotional transition" in the couple's relationship.<ref>Sarris, 1966. p. 19-20</ref>]] Despite the lurid [[mise-en-scène]] that provides the canvas for Sternberg's imagination, the film is neither "a crime thriller, nor a hardboiled noir...''The Docks of New York'' is an elegant and elegiac love story [and] the most emotionally affecting film" of Sternberg's career.<ref name="Muller"/><ref>Baxter, 1971. p. 54: Critic John Baxter call the film "a complex melodrama of moral rebirth..."</ref> A standard melodrama with a "deceptively simple" plot, Sternberg does not dwell upon the social conditions of the working class figures; he is "not concerned with the class consciousness of the characters." Rather than striving to be realistic, Sternberg's photography served to "give visual experience feelings more than facts." Through the combination of camera movement (as opposed to montage) and his mise-en-scène compositions "that closely resemble German expressionist cinema", Sternberg conveys a "deeply felt emotional maturity and raw passion not previously seen on the American screen."<ref>Sarris, 1966. p. 22<br>Muller, 2012.<br>Blick, 2012.<br>Silver, 2010</ref> Film critic William Blick reserves special mention for the film's wedding scene: {{blockquote|"The wedding scene is perhaps the most memorable in the film, after Bill has agreed to marry Mae as a dare. In the crowded bar, a preacher is dragged in to issue the vows. Bill takes his vows knowing that he cannot keep them, and Mae earnestly accepts hers while others mock. The sharp contrast between the barroom setting and the solemnity of the wedding vows makes for an interesting paradox; one that runs throughout the film and focuses upon doomed companionship amidst the canvas of the docks of New York."<ref>Blick, 2012</ref>}} Critic [[Andrew Sarris]] considers the "sewing" scene, with its use of "subjective camera" the key psychological moment of the film: {{blockquote|"Sternberg quietly dramatizes the emotional transition with a scene in which Compson sews Bancroft's pocket after it has been torn by Bancroft's jealous buddy [Clyde Cook]. This pocket, like [[Desdemona]]'s handkerchief, becomes the visual correlative of the drama, the battleground between conjugal feelings and fraternal loyalties. To emphasize the stakes in this struggle, Sternberg even shifts from an objective to a subjective camera viewpoint by photographing out-of-focus the needle Compson tries to thread through her tears. When Bancroft take the needle away and threads it himself, the domestic irony of the situation takes on a new dimension. It becomes psychologically through this external gesture that Bancroft needs Compson's love more than her care, and that, conversely, Compson has more love in her than care..."<ref>Sarris, 1966. pp. 19-20</ref><ref>Baxter, 1971. pp. 57-58</ref>}}
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