Way Down East (1920)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- The original billing by D.W.Griffith as "A Simple Story of Plain People" understates the scale and significance of his most ambitious production to that date. There are no spectacular settings, no armies of extras, no highly paid stars, but costs mounted while Griffith waited for the seasons to change and nature to produce the wondrous effects which he used magnificently to reflect the emotional states of the characters expertly combined with small passages of comic relief.
- Actors:
- Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Mrs. David Landau, Lowell Sherman, Burr McIntosh, Josephine Bernard, Mrs. Morgan Belmont, Patricia Fruen, Florence Short, Kate Bruce, Vivia Ogden, Porter Strong, George Neville, Edgar Nelson, Mary Hay
- Directors:
- D.W. Griffith
- Producers:
- D.W. Griffith
- Writers:
- Lottie Blair Parker, William A. Brady, Joseph R. Grismer, Anthony Paul Kelly, D.W. Griffith
- Studio:
- Eureka
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- Top 100 AFI Passions, Top Films
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Reviews (1) of Way Down East
Silent Melodrama (spoiler). - Way Down East review by Steve
The 1920s was the era of jazz and Anything Goes, and the films of DW Griffith and Lillian Gish started to go out of fashion, with their Victorian moralising and sentimental melodrama. Gish was surpassed by urban jazz babes like Clara Bow and the austere exoticism of Greta Garbo. This is set on a farm in small town, rural America.
But a hundred years on, Griffith and Gish's films still live. This is partly because Griffith was such a good director and he was particularly talented at creating suspense though his editing. He always kept the drama in the frame. And he makes the most of Gish's wan beauty, with her huge eyes, bathing her in gauzy light in long close ups.
And Gish is such a fine actor. More naturalistic performers would emerge in the later silent period, but she is very effective here, telling the story through her pale, suffering face as well as creating a moving impression of her vulnerability. The theme is the hypocrisy of a society which allows sexual freedom to men and prohibition to women, which would be a key preoccupation of the coming decade.
It's actually exactly the same story as Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but with a happy ending! And it's that spectacular climax which stays in the memory, with Gish swept away in the ice floes of a frozen river. It's a long film. The comedy is a little homespun, but the drama is harrowing and engaging and Lillian breaks your heart a dozen different ways before the fade out.