11. Orphans of the Storm (1921)

Running Time: 150 minutes

Directed By: D.W. Griffith

Written By: D.W. Griffith, from the play The Two Orphans by Eugene Cormon and Adolphe d'Ennery

Main Cast: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut, Monte Blue, Morgan Wallace

I WAVED GOODBYE TO OL' D.W. AS I CONTINUED ON MY JOURNEY

As we bid farewell to D.W. Griffith, we take one last look at his work in Orphans of the Storm, a great movie that uses the French Revolution as a backdrop to tell a heart wrenching tale of two "sisters" (played by real life sisters, Lillian and Doroth Gish).

After being abandoned by her aristocrat parents, Louisa is found and accepted by commoners in the 1700's. The commoners, a man and woman, already have a child named Henriette, so the two are brought up as sisters. After the girls are both grown up, the plague takes the life of their parents and strikes Louisa with blindness. Henriette, however, vows to never leave her side and promises to always take care of her.

So they take off for Paris, to meet with a doctor, in hopes of curing the eyes of Louisa. Once in Paris, they come across Marquis de Praille, who becomes enchanted by Henriette. When she gives him the cold shoulder, he demands to have her abducted and brought to his estate, thus breaking up the sisters and leaving the blind Louisa to fend for herself. However, a noble, gentelman by the name of Chevalier de Vaudrey rescues her from the home of Praille and takes her to safety, only to fall in love with her.

From there, Louisa is taken in by a band of poor scoundrels, with bad intentions. They see Louisa's blindness and innocence as a way to make money while begging on the streets. They mistreat her and abuse her, but use her for their advantage. Henriette continues to search for Louisa, without luck. The aristocrat Chevalier de Vaudrey, determined to marry Henriette, is arrested for disobeying the king's orders and going against his pre-planned marriage.

Then the revolution breaks out and the aristocrats are overthrown by the people, with even the prisoners being set free. The new law decrees that any aristocrat found in the city will be arrested, as well as anyone harboring an aristocrat. Henriette, now a freed prisoner, meets back up with Chevalier, but they are found out and re-arrested and sentenced to the guillotine, leaving us with a super suspenful ending to a great film.

I gotta tell ya if I had read a review of this film, before going into it, I probably would've dreaded it. I mean, french revolution, aristocrats and men wearing wigs doesn't sound like a great time to me. But I was pleasantly surprised to find this gem and enjoyed it I DID!

Surprisingly I gotta say I'm kinda sad that the Griffith flicks are done, as I was really starting to settle in and enjoy the hell out of his movies. The last three I watched were very well done and Broken Blossoms was the stuff dreams are made of. Orphans of the Storm was also great, with Way Down East coming in thrid, but a noble third indeed.

RATING: 7.5/10 I think when I'm all done with the mission of completing the 1001, I'll revisit Griffith and watch some of his other films. Great movie!

NEXT UP: The Smiling Madame Beudet...Can't find it yet...Stay tuned.

September 20, 2009 8:59pm

08. Way Down East (1920)

Running Time: 123 minutes

Directed By: D.W. Griffith

Written By: Anthony Paul Kelly, Joseph R. Grismer, D.W. Griffith, from the play Way Down East by Joseph R. Grismer, William A. Brady and the play Annie Laurie by Lottie Blair Parker

Main Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Lowell Sherman, Burr McIntosh, Kate Bruce

THE TWENTIES HAVE ARRIVED

Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess team up again, along with D.W. Griffith to bring us this better than average simple story of plain people.

Anna Moore (Gish) leaves her mother in New England to go and live with her more wealthy relatives. Eventhough they don't care for her, they let her stay with them for a short while, or at least until she meets and falls in love with the even wealthier Sanderson (Sherman). Sanderson, a ladies man that will go with any girl who will have him, sees Anna as a beauty and must have her. So he arranges a fake marriage and leads her to believe that they are wed. Anna then becomes pregnant and when Sanderson finds this out, he tells her that they were never actually married by a real priest and takes the first train to Splitsville.

While staying at a boarding house, Anna's baby is born and eventually dies and Anna is thrown out of the joint for not being married, as we're talking 1920's folks when baby and marriage went hand in hand. So she leaves and with nowhere to go, stumbles on to the Bartlett Farm. Squire Bartlett, the patriarch of the Bartlett family, a good, bible thumping man invites her to stay and help out around the house, after some convincing from his wife, Mother Bartlett. After staying there a while and becoming very close with the Bartlett's, especially their son David, who is falling madly in love with Anna, she finds out that Sanderson lives not too far away and is very much acquainted with the Bartlett's.

In private, he insists that she leave, as he cannot have her living so close to his home, even threatening to expose her baby secret to the upstanding Squire Bartlett. Eventually it all comes to a head, truths are outed, loves are proclaimed and the movie climaxes on a frozen river that is quickly thawing, a very grand sequence, considering the time period.

While Way Down East didn't get to me as much as Broken Blossoms did, I still found it quite enjoyable. If I had to pick one thing that was better about this film, than Blossoms, I would have to say that the characters are more fleshed out in Way Down East. There are several characters who you just wanna grab by the neck and choke for their actions, while on the other hand their are characters that you cannot help but sympathize with.

RATING: 6.5/10 Well Griffith's two for four and has one last opportunity to leave a good impression on me, with Orphans of the Storm, which is coming up shortly in the book. Certainly cannot go the full monty on this one, but it definitely blows Intolerance and The Birth of A Nation away on the enjoyment scale.

NEXT UP: Within Our Gates...to date I cannot find this one...but I'm still trying

September 20, 2009 3:58am

07. Broken Blossoms (1919)

Running Time: 90 minutes

Directed By: D.W. Griffith

Written By: Thomas Burke, D.W. Griffith

Main Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp

GRIFFITH KNOCKS ONE OUT OF THE PARK!

When I was finished watching this movie, I stepped outside, lit a cigarette, and actually tried to find something wrong with this movie. I have previously watched two very boring, difficult to sit through Griffith films, and was not looking forward to watching a third. Thought, at only ninety minutes, I knew it would probably be much easier to get through than previous efforts. I sat there thinking of anything I could think of to nitpick at this film and found absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Our story begins in China, as a young man (played beautifully by Richard Barthelmess) known in the movie only as, The Yellow Man, is getting ready for a journey "across the seas" to teach the Anglo-Saxons the ways of the Buddha, the ways of peace, instead of violence. He winds up in the town of Limehouse in England, and with his original motives going unplanned. Instead, while in England, he owns a small shop and keeps to himself.

Enter Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish, the Samuel L. Jackson to Griffith's Quentin Tarantino, if you will, to put it in modern terms) and her drunk, child abusing, boxing father, Battling Burrows. Lucy, it seems, can do no right in his eyes, cowering in fear at every move she makes, making sure she talks and does everything her father approves of, to avoid a beating with his dreaded whip.

One day after Battling gives her a good beating, she runs from the house in fear and ends up passing out inside The Yellow Man's shop. The Yellow Man with his peaceful ways and kind heart takes her in, makes her a bed, gives her a robe and treats her like a queen. A treatment that is completely foreign to Lucy. Everything is going swimmingly until one of Battling's friends discovers Lucy staying in the upstairs of the Yellow Man's shop. He of course relays the news to Battling, and after a very entertaining boxing match, film wise, Battling storms from the ring and straight to the Yellow Man's shop, giving Lucy the worst beating he's ever given her, even chasing her home and finding her hiding in a closet. With the use of an axe he busts through the door (think Jack Torrance in The Shining) and uses the whip to finish Lucy off.

I believe I've truly realized the definition of a true, great silent film. It's when you don't recognize the music or the title cards, or when you don't realize that, yes, the actor's mouth's are moving but no words are coming out. It's when you are blind to all these elements and yet you still feel the passion, the love, the anger and the sadness oozing out of these characters, through the screen and right into you. This movie did that for me and I'll always remember it for that. Even if the ability to record voices was invented at this time, I think the actor's talking could've only decreased the absolute beauty of this film. It plays better when you just watch and realize the horror, and yet at the same time, the beauty that is unfolding before your eyes. Broken Blossoms is a great film and any ill words I've voiced towards D.W. Griffith are hereby retracted.

RATING: 10/10 This movie deserves to be given the full monty of ratings. Unquestionably the best film I've seen thus far and it's gonna be hard to top it.

NEXT UP: Way Down East...More Griffith...and for the first time, I look forward to it.

September 19, 2009 5:12am

05. INTOLERANCE (1916)

Running Time: 148 minutes

Directed By: D.W. Griffith

Written By: Tod Browning, D.W. Griffith

Main Cast: Mae Marsh, Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Constance Talmadge, Gino Corrado, Douglas Fairbanks

Quick side note: The version I watched of this film, which was a rental copy from Netflix, was only 148 minutes. In doing some research, I find that the film is actually nearly 180 minutes, and even the small slip cover that comes with all Netflix movies lists Intolerance as "2 hours, 58 minutes". So I'm not entirely sure about the whole versions, and different lengths thing, but this is the one I watched and I'm not watching it again. So there...

LOVE'S STRUGGLE THROUGHOUT THE AGES...AND MY STRUGGLE TO GET THROUGH THIS MOVIE

I'll say right off the bat, that it doesn't look like I'm gonna be buying any D.W. Griffith box sets anytime soon. These incredibly long, incredibly slow silent films are taking their toll on me and thank God my next film is just a little over an hour.

So, Intolerance weaves the tales of four stories, from different periods of time, together to show love's struggle throughout the ages. We get a modern tale, a tale set during the last years of Christ, a tale from ancient Babylon and a tale set around the time of the St. Bartholomew's massacre.

The one that I found the most interesting was the modern tale, which tells the story of a young girl falling in love with "The Boy" and having a baby, only to see her baby taken away from her, for suspected neglect and her husband framed for a murder he did not commit. The story ends with the girl racing towards the train which carries the governor and begging him to pardon her husband, who is only seconds away from the noose.

I also found the Jesus Christ story quite interesting, and at least something that was recognizable, as we are treated to screen depictions of Jesus turning water into wine, and the "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone" ordeal, before he's taken away and crucified. My only beef with the Jesus story, is that there wasn't enough of it. The modern tale took up most of the movie length and the Babylon story followed shortly behind.

Basically, in a nutshell, I didn't care for Intolerance. I found it to be very boring (much like Griffith's previous, "The Birth of A Nation") and very hard to sit through. Now, hey, I'm all for giving the guy his credit and slapping him with the title "landmark filmmaker", and I respect him and all that jazz, but I'm sorry...the guy's movie's are just so hard to sit through and when you're done all you wanna do is go to bed and sleep, because they just sap your energy to sit through them.

So there, I've said it, and call me Mr. Unknowledgeable Film Man, for shooting down Griffith's work, I don't care. I know there's much better movies out there, and much more enjoyable ones.

If I had to say one positive thing about this flick, it's that it was quite grand for it's time. It had absolutely spectacular sets, great costumes and with over 3,000 extras, I thought it was quite a feat for 1916.

RATING: 3/10 I went ahead and just sat it right beside the Birth of a Nation on the ratings scale.

NEXT UP: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari...Who directed it? Robert Wiene? Hey, that's not Griffith, so we're all good!

September 17, 2009 1:59pm

03. The Birth of a Nation (1915)

Running Time: 187 minutes

Directed By: D.W. Griffith

Written By: Frank E. Woods, D.W. Griffith, from the novel The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan, the novel The Leopard's Spots, and the play The Clansman by Thomas F. Dixon Jr.

Main Cast: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, Mary Alden, Ralph Lewis, George Slegmann, Walter Long

ON MY JOURNEY I MET A MAN NAMED 'GRIFFITH'

Well after many years of being a self proclaimed movie buff, I finally sit myself down and watch The Birth of a Nation. A movie that I had heard was a pioneer in film making, and yet very controversial at the same time. Well now I can say I've seen it...

...OH! You want my opinion?...Okay.

Well it was a hell of a chore to sit through, I'll say that right off the bat. Not counting the two that I've previously watched from the book, it's only the second silent film I've ever seen (the other being The Gold Rush by Charlie Chaplin, which we'll get to later on down the road).

We start out in the pre-Civil War days and two families are introduced: The Camerons of the South and the Stonemans of the North. They are two families who are acquainted, and who are good old chums. We see them visiting each other and Ben Cameron falls in love with a picture of Elsie Stoneman.

Then the Civil War breaks out and that goes on for quite sometime. It takes us through to about the ninety minute mark of the film, when the North wins the Civil War and Lee surrenders to Grant. From there, we are taken to the Ford Theatre (sound familiar?) where President Lincoln is shot dead and Mr. Stoneman takes up as "Greatest Power in the Nation".

Then we head into the Reconstruction. This is where the film takes a rather devious and evil turn. Mr. Stoneman and his protege Silas Lynch (who is of a mulatto skin tone) head south to make sure that there agenda goes as planned. The blacks are now given the sole right to vote and take over the House of Representatives and are painted as vicious tyrants who oppress the white people.

One day Ben Cameron gets an idea to form a group of men who will go around and terrorize the black people and hopefully, eventually gain back their power. They call themselves the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

So, in short, from there the "heroes" of the film, the KKK, run rough shot over the land and eventually regain their stature in society. A parade is thrown for them and they are lauded.

IS IT A MUST SEE BEFORE I DIE?

Despite the incredibly racist tones of this movie, you have to give it something for being an innovator. Considering the film is 90 years old, it is unbelievable the things that Griffith achieved with this 187 minute epic. The battle scenes, the extras, the camera work...it is all fantastic and I won't take anything away from it, in that respect.

The two big thins I will take away from it, is the fact that (1) It's an extremely racist film and one that I cannot condone and (2) It is very hard to sit through this thing. It gets very boring in some parts and very tedious to watch.

So the final verdict: Yes, see it once for historical value. I really don't think you can call yourself a film buff until you've seen this landmark picture. I'm very glad that I got a chance to see it in my lifetime, and after all that's what this mission is all about for me. But I will warn you one last time, it is quite boring.

Rating: 3/10 When adding up all the factors, I really cannot go higher than a 3. If anyone's reading this, I know I'm probably gonna get scolded beyond belief for that rating and be told I have no right to be watching films if I can't appreciate Griffith's masterpiece, but based purely on my enjoyment level a 3/10 is appropriate.

NEXT UP: Les Vampires....OH THE HORROR!!!

September 13, 2009 2:20am