In my opinion, Lang was always the superior German filmmaker. Murnau's films are simply boring when compared to other films of his era, and Tabu is no exception. Murnau expects us to care about the love story, but he rarely shows any intimate moments between the two other than their sleeping. The scenes are long-winded and spoon-fed. However, I have no doubt that just seeing a Polynesian island people on location was a spectacle for American audiences at the time who had probably never even seen a PI before, even in pictures. The film unfortunately can't decide if it's a documentary or a fictional love story. It had potential to be something different, like a critique of colonialism, but it never follows this potential.
Review of Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
