Maybe it was more powerful because I was familiar with it beforehand.
I found it gripping. Compelling. I wanted to hear every word. I wanted to see and take in every scene from a photographic impact point of view. Both from the scenes value to the whole and its visual affect on my consciousness and emotions. Also as one whose whole life has been concerned with imagery. My early years were comics , were about stories in pictures , about visual impact and few words.
Interestingly from that point of view it was very powerful. I suspect without sound it would still work and the message would still be there. Then obviously silent movies had to have impact and get the story across , to keep you interested.
Kindling kept me glued to the screen in a trance.
Was it because I have had two near misses recently ? They say a cat has 9 lives and I have lost many including
Surviving Meningitis , leukaemia and Heart Attack.
So maybe it meant more to me than others.
You can safely be sure that it was a Film I totally related to from that point of view.
Then there is the loss of loved ones. I believe we live on in everyone we have ever met and shared time with. And they live on in us.