"Blood and Sand" tells us many times how cruel and dangerous it believes bullfighting to be, but in terms of what it actually shows us, it seems far more interested in the romantic qualities of Rudolph Valentino and his larger-than-life love triangle.

Valentino gives a legitimately good performance, but even the love story loses some of its immediacy from the fact that "Blood and Sand" takes its subject at some distance, periodically stepping back and focusing on the scholar who foreshadows the matador's end. This also allows some of the characterization to go without being fully realized. When all is said and done it is neither believable as an anti-bullfighting film nor totally involving as a story of a love triangle, but some of the elements, including the performances and some excellent symbolic imagery, are well realized.

It's difficult to evaluate a silent film from the standpoint of present day because you never know what elements besides restoration have been added to enhance the original. In my case, the version of "Blood and Sand" I watched was the 109 minute Kino print with an updated score provided by Rodney Sauer and Susan Hall, and performed by the Mont Alto Picture Orchestra. Most of the picture was in black and white, but when I decided to take specific note, it was the outdoor scenes in B&W while indoor scenes were rendered in a brown sepia tone. There was a segment also done in a more reddish sepia flavor midway through the picture that wasn't repeated.

This was my first look at the famed Valentino. I'd always heard his name mentioned while growing up but never got to see any of his work until today. First impression was that he was the George Clooney of his era, very handsome and a good choice as a matinee idol. His character in the film however came across as cocky, arrogant and brash, and to top it off, he was a womanizer who fell in love with two ladies, his wife Carmen (Lila Lee), and a seductive temptress named Doña Sol (Nita Naldi). The story traces the progress of Juan Gallardo (Valentino) from an apprentice bull fighter of sorts, up to a skilled and eventually famous matador after some two years of triumph in the bull ring. There's a coterie of support personnel around Juan who track his progress along with him, who show a degree of disfavor when he becomes involved with Doña Sol.

One of the things that struck me while watching was the fact that for a film made in 1922, there appeared to be fairly liberal use of even earlier stock footage for such things as crowd scenes and some of the bullfight sequences. Who would have thought? I also wasn't quite prepared for something the present day Me Too Movement would find particularly outrageous. In the latter part of the story, as Doña Sol seduces Juan and the Cleopatra ring changes hands, she passionately intones "Some day you will beat me with those strong hands. I should like to know what it feels like". Yikes, no wonder Juan wound up calling her a 'Serpent From Hell'!

As far as silent films go, I didn't find this one to be particularly exceptional aside from the unusual backdrop of Spanish bullfighting. When I enter this title in a list of silent movies I've seen and rank it in IMDb ranking order, it comes out at #23 out of 32 movies (as I write this). For me, the bonus was seeing Rudolph Valentino for the first time, while the Kino compilation I saw offered a Will Rogers parody of "Blood and Sand" in which Rogers takes on the Valentino role and successfully 'wins' his fight against the bull. As the camera pulls away, a handful of attendants are shown, visibly restraining the bull with a set of ropes. Done as a silent also, Rogers gets to mention via title card that "Yes, these bull fight scenes are always more or less dangerous".