Wow! That’s was a whole week that just passed by without any movies from the book being reviewed here! I’m doing way too slow. Will have to improve that before I have to put the issue on my list of New Year’s resolutions.
Anyway, I have three movies to tell you about tonight: Broken Blossoms (Griffith, 1919), Way Down East (Griffith, 1920) and Within Our Gates (Micheaux, 1920). I have to say that they are all really unusual (besides the concept that Griffith was still to learn how to work with the conventional 90-minute movies) and interesting. So fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!
Broken Blossoms is one of the finest Griffiths ever. It is so delicate and unpretentious that it is difficult to associate with Griffith, especially after watching mega productions such as The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. But it is easy to understand the transition in between movies when Intolerance was intolerated by audiences and Griffith almost got bankrupted.
Lillan Gish was just wonderful as the girl opressed by an abusive father (he is a boxer that doesn’t have a punch bag at home… what do you expect?) There are some classic scenes, like the one where she is seating by the dock, where her skin is whiter and softer than you could ever imagine to be possible. The scene as a whole is soft and dreamy. A beautiful setting for an impossible love in between the poor girl and the Chinese immigrant.
I can’t forget to mention the superb job done by Richard Barthelmess when interpreting the Chinese immigrant. The actor is not Chinese but with makeup, costume and lots of good acting he ended up making me forget his real self. Of course everything was so exaggerated (as always in the silent movies) but done gracefully and in conjunction with all the other pieces of the movie.
I can’t forget to mention about one particular gesture done by Lillian Gish everytime she was asked by her father to smile. Since life was difficult and the girl couldn’t find a reason to smile, she would create a smile by using her fingers. I thought the act was amazing and it reminded me of Chaplin so much! The small details are the ones that I love the most on silent movies and Lillian Gish just imprinted her acting on my soul by doing that little movement.
If you feel like checkin Broken Blossoms up (you really should!), take a look on youtube:
Way Down East follows the same line and doesn’t bring three thousand actors and lavish scenarios. Lillian Gish is once more the innocent and pure girl in trouble, ready to be save by prince charming. Oh, well… La-di-da… At least the girl is Lillian Gish and prince charming is Richard Barthelmess.
In these two Griffith’s movies there are little or none technical experimentations. The only thing I really got excited about was the final scene of Way Down East, when Barthelmess is rescuing Gish. She was running on a snow storm, at night, without proper clothes and fainted by the river. The block of ice where she was on cracked and she started to float down the river, straight to a waterfall (the perfect situation for rescue!). Then prince charming comes along and, after jumping from block of ice to block of ice, takes the princess in his arms and runs back to land. It sounds ok but it was so well done that you really fear for their lives! I was really tense while watching this scene because everything was so unpredictable. I hope actors made millions at that time… especially when you don’t have CGI to do the dirty job for you.
If you’ve got interested in checking the movie go to youtube:
The last movie I’ve seen today was Within Our Gates, by African American director Oscar Micheaux. The movie is groundbreaking not only because it was made by an African American in 1920 but because of its content. After the controversial The Birth of a Nation, Within Our Gates sounds like a response to the misconceptions brought by Griffith to the big screen.
The movie was so controversial and ended up disappearing for decades. It shows the injustice and atrocities commited by whites in the south. The leading lady, Sylvia, was an educated African American who fought for the right of her people to have access to education. That sounds mild but when the movie goes on a flashback to tell us about her tragic story, the picture changes. First, her father was wrongly accused of killing a white man. Then, after being on the run for days, Sylvia’s parents are lynched by a mob of white people. Sylvia’s brother is shot while running away but still manages to get into a horse and scape. Sylvia, who was hidden on some friend’s house, is found by the brother of the white guy killed and ends up almost being rapped.
I think this is a movie to be watched for the historical importance it has. Besides that, there’s nothing else to be observed. The movie is really boring at times and the acting really bad.
Check the movie out, if you are curious about it:
I guess that’s it for today, folks! See you soon!
715 days and 992 movies to go
