somejava Over time I've noticed how much I enjoy the pace of silent movies. Not being pushed and hurried is a very welcoming experience. Also the fact, that, in between the written dialog...you only rely on the physical expressions of the actors and your own imagination. And in my opinion that allows the viewer to enjoy the movie in his or her own unique way. This holds true for all silent movies. This movie would certainly seem to have been ahead of it's time. The statement made was loud and clear. The acting was good. The underwater scenes and the context they were presented in probably had the most impact on me.

silentmoviefan White Shadows of the South Seas has lots of wonderful scenery, both the plant and human kind. The women natives and leading lady Raquel Torres are not hard to look at, whatsoever. But... The ending? Awful, terrible and bad! Monte Blue is a drunken doctor who does what he can for the natives who need medical help. He also doesn't like the way his fellow white people exploit the natives. He strikes up a friendship with Raquel and things blossom into love. Earlier in the film, he told one of the white exploiters how awful he thought his practices were. Unmoved by this, the exploiter suggests he leave and continuing to do what he did would be hazardous to the doctor's health. Toward the end of the film, Monte takes up the cause again and the exploiter, keeping his word, has him shot. He dies and Raquel is shown weeping over his grave in the final scene. Not that bad a film, but the ending left me cold!

MartinHafer This is the tale of a doctor who is disgusted at the greed of the White sailors who plunder and exploit the Polynesian natives. Risking their lives to retrieve huge pearls, the locals are given mere trinkets. And, when a few die, the Whites take no heed. But, when the doctor has had enough and verbally attacks these "businessmen", his is tied to the wheel of a ship full of plague victims and cast adrift. Fortunately, he finds an unspoiled island full of sweet villagers. Will the wicked White men come and destroy this paradise, too, or will the doctor find the peace he so craves? The film has amazingly good cinematography and it's nice to see that the crew went to Tahiti to film. Additionally, the film is innovative because it's MGM's first sound film, though like most of these early films, it is NOT all-sound, but uses some synchronized music and sound effects. At the time, audiences were spellbound--today it just seems like a nice silent film with some added sound and nothing more. The story is very good and compelling, though at times a bit too earnest and preachy about those "White Devils" and their greed.I am a huge fan of F.W. Murnau, the great German director. While he did some wonderful and very advanced films (such as NOSFERATU, FAUST and THE LAST LAUGH), somehow the final film in his career (TABU, 1931) has also been accorded 'classic status'--even though it was a silent film made in 1931. In addition, you can't help but think that Murnau was copying WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS--as the films seem very similar to me. However, WHITE SHADOWS was an innovative film with synchronized sound and music. By 1931, sound was the standard in many nations and Murnau's making a silent seemed a bit out of date. If I had to watch just one of these films, I'd pick WHITE SHADOWS.

zpzjones This is a fine silent film done in the tradition of Robert Flaherty's docu's but with a scenario/script. Monte Blue in his finest silent performance is a doctor who has become disenchanted with his existence & has taken to the bottle. He meets Sebastian, a modern day opportunist cum pirate. He and Monte clash and later Monte is shanghaied by some of Sebastian's thugs and tied to the wheel of a schooner which in the title cards is infested with bubonic plagued dead bodies. The schooner is set adrift in a storm and Monte gets loose from the wheel and tries steering the boat to safety only to end up on some rocks on an uncharted tropical Pacific island. Monte later after the shipwreck meets some native islanders who have been insulated from the outside world-civilisation. They adopt Monte as one of their own and he learns to live with them and has a renewed interest in life. As time goes on Monte(his character is called Lloyd)& the natives become as family. One day Monte goes pearl diving and realizes the value of such an abundance of pearls. Greed overtakes Monte causing him to throw his newfound existence with the natives as well as their trust in the garbage can. He sets out a signal fire atop a hill to be rescued. The only boat to see his signal is Sebastian & his men. They arrive in all of their colonial like arrogance and get the native women to smoke cigarettes & the men to be lazy. Later Monte & Sebastian meet a final time before one of Sebastian's men shoots Monte dead.This is a fine film to introduce a novice to silent films. It's what these films were all about. Fine story telling without any recorded dialogue. Beautiful travelogue like photography(in Tahiti by the way). A 10 out of 10 from me.