This film I feel must be reviewed for two different categories. One is entertainment and one is film quality. Qualitywise, this movie is amazing. The picture shown above shows how huge and intricate the sets were. It also has an extra cast exceeding 3,000. The score is also excellent and the acting is a lot better than you would suspect in a silent film. However, I must say that I was not engrossed the whole time. I mean, it is over three hours long and silent. This definitely should be watched in sections.
This movie has four different stories going on at different times in history. The most interesting I would say is the one that involves a woman whose baby is getting taken away from her.
I think I learned a lot about D.W. Griffith from watching these films. I had a preconceived notion that he was a viciously racist man but I really don't think he did it intentionally. He was actually a monumental film maker apart from the ugly garbage that was in Birth of a Nation. The moral of the story: don't judge a director by the racism in his earlier films because they get better (is that the expression?).
RATING: ***--
Interesting Facts:
This film is listed as 49 on AFI's top 100 list.
This film was extremely expensive for the time (2 million) and never came close to grossing that much.
The guy who played Jesus is this film was involved in a sex scandal with a fourteen year old girl. That doesn't exactly go with his character in the movie.
Great anecdote!
ReplyDeleteI think I lost focus about halfway and do not remember the second half. Something about unfair treatment I suppose. For me it was only with Broken Blossoms that Griffith redeemed himself.
True, although the racism in that one is always cringy. Ah, Griffith...
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