DESTINY or to be more precise WEARY DEATH (Death is tired of man’s hatred for just doing his job) was the first big international success for Fritz Lang and his collaborator Thea von Harbou. She would marry him after this film and be responsible for his scenarios until Lang left her and Germany in 1933. They made quite a team with von Harbou’s romantic quasi-mystical stories softening the hard edge of Lang’s no-nonsense direction. He gave her stories depth while she gave his films compassion. I digress about Lang and von Harbou because DESTINY reveals the various aspects of their developing relationship while engaging us with its allegorical story of Death and Love triumphant.
The plot is relatively simple. In an old German village Death takes a young maiden’s fiance’ and she tries to get him back. If she can prevent any one of three characters from suffering a preordained fate (hence the English title DESTINY) Death will restore her loved one. This allows Lang and von Harbou the opportunity to use exotic locales for the three separate stories making this one of the first anthology films. After she fails to alter their fates Death gives her one last chance. She has one hour to bring him a life in exchange for that of her betrothed. The sets, the lighting, the camerawork are all exemplary. German expressionism meets Scandinavian pastoral meets film noir. The performances may seem exaggerated in places but remember this was not meant to be realistic. Bernhard Goetzke however is outstanding as the weary but compassionate Death.
This new Kino Blu-Ray version is a significant improvement over the old Image DVD. The framing has been corrected and the color tints used are not as saturated as before. The editing in the climactic fire sequence is tighter but it’s still somewhat disjointed which may be due to the fact that Lang’s original version no longer exists. This edition restores the original German text to the title cards as well as the the different styles of font used for each story which is a nice touch. There is a new musical score is by Cornelius Schwehr and it’s performed by a full sized symphony orchestra. While it sounds impressive, I prefer the old Rodney Sauer score for its immediacy and intimacy.
DESTINY remains my personal favorite among Fritz Lang’s films for its allegorical nature and striking fairy tale imagery. Having just watched this new Kino Blu-Ray, I find it necessary to revisit and to upgrade my old review. A new restoration requires a new review after all. This release from the F.W. Murnau Foundation is certainly a 5 star affair although the new score, as mentioned earlier, is not completely to my liking. The new title cards are subtitled but there are no English ones which may bother some people. In closing (considering the nature of the film) I should report that Thea von Harbou died in Germany in 1954 while Fritz Lang died in Hollywood in 1976.
The Capsule Critic 