Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

Release, runtime and language

1927 · 94 mins

Starring

Herman Bing, Janet Gaynor, George O'Brien, Robert Parrish, J. Farrell MacDonald, Arthur Housman

Praised for its visual poetry and emotional depth, the film follows a rural farmer whose life is upended when a disheveled city woman arrives, seducing him and urging him to kill his wife by drowning her. The tension between innocence and temptation drives the tragic narrative.