Jimmie Higgins (1928) - A silent film that actually hurts to watch

So, I finally sat down with Jimmie Higgins last night. If you are looking for something light to put on while you eat dinner, please, look somewhere else.

Is it worth watching today? Honestly, yes, but only if you have the stomach for a story that basically ends in a basement of despair. People who love old Soviet silents or those gritty, socialist-leaning books will probably find it fascinating. If you hate movies that feel like they are yelling at you about politics, you will definitely want to skip this one.

The whole thing is based on an Upton Sinclair book. That should tell you everything you need to know about the vibe. It is not a happy story.

We start with Jimmie, played by Amvrosi Buchma. He’s an worker at a plant that makes weapons. It’s loud and hot and you can almost feel the grease on the lens. Buchma has this way of moving that makes him look like he’s always tired but still trying to be a good guy.

There is this one scene early on during a spontaneous rally against the war. The way the camera catches the dust in the air while Jimmie is speaking is actually quite beautiful. He gets arrested, of course. That seems to be his lot in life.

When he gets out, he’s unemployed and the world is falling apart. Then he hears about the revolution in Russia. He gets this idea in his head that if he joins the American army, he can go over there and fight the Germans to protect the new socialist state. It is a bit heartbreaking how much he believes this.

It’s a very different vibe from something like Baree, Son of Kazan where nature is the big threat. Here, the threat is just other men in uniforms.

The movie gets really interesting when Jimmie actually lands in Russia. He’s all ready to fight the Germans. But then he realizes the Americans aren’t there to help the revolution. They are there to stop it.

The look on his face when he figures this out is probably the best bit of acting in the whole film. It’s not a big dramatic scream. He just kind of goes blank.

He starts spreading propaganda and handing out Bolshevik leaflets to the other American soldiers. It’s all very cloak-and-dagger. The tension in these scenes is real. You can feel the cold and the paranoia of the military camp.

The American military police in this movie are portrayed as absolute monsters. They have these stiff, high collars and they look down their noses at everyone. It’s very much a Soviet perspective on the US military of the time.

I noticed a small detail in the prison scene later on. There is a tiny bit of light coming from a high window that keeps moving across the floor. It feels like the only thing in the movie that is actually free.

Jimmie eventually gets caught. The interrogation scenes are rough. They don’t show everything, but they show enough to make you feel uncomfortable in your seat.

The pacing gets a bit fast and frantic toward the end. It’s like the movie is trying to mimic his mind falling apart. It reminds me a little of the emotional spiral in The Way of a Girl, but way more political and violent.

He gets sentenced to twenty years. Twenty years in a military prison back then was basically a death sentence. Jimmie just can't take it. He loses his mind.

The final shots of him are genuinely haunting. It isn’t that fake, theatrical kind of 'crazy' you see in a lot of silent movies. It feels hollow.

I think Isaak Babel wrote the script, or at least worked on it. You can tell. There is a certain sharpness to the way the scenes are put together. It doesn't waste much time on fluff.

Some of the title cards are a little too long and explain things that we can already see on the screen. It’s that old problem where the filmmakers didn't quite trust the audience to get the 'message' without reading it. But the visuals usually win out.

There is a scene where Jimmie is looking at a piece of bread that feels like it goes on for a minute too long. I think it was supposed to show his hunger, but it just made me wonder if the film reel got stuck. It’s one of those weird pacing choices you find in these old silents.

Still, the factory scenes at the beginning are great. The machinery looks like it wants to eat the workers. It’s very industrial and cold.

I wouldn't call this a masterpiece, mostly because it feels so much like a piece of propaganda at times. But as a character study of a man being broken by a system he doesn't understand, it's pretty powerful.

You probably won't want to watch it twice. Once is enough to get the point. It’s a movie that leaves you feeling a bit tired, like you’ve been through the ringer along with Jimmie.

If you find a version with a good score, it helps a lot. The one I saw had this very discordant, scratchy violin music that made the ending even more upsetting. It fit the mood, but man, it was a lot to take in on a Tuesday night.