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Broken BlossomsRating:
Release Date: 11 May, 1999 Retail Price: $24.99 OUR Price: $22.99 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: |
Broken Blossoms Reviews
I WISH I COULD SAY I'VE LOVED THIS FILM SINCE I WAS A TEENAGER --- BUT . . . .
I just saw this film for the first time several nights ago. Sure, it came out in 1919 and I've had lots of time to see it, but there is something about silent movies. I just can't watch them till the end. I just get bored ---- but this film was different. I not only saw it through, I really was impressed throughout the entire screening. For that reason, I consider "Broken Blossoms" a true 5-Star film.
IN A NUTSHELL: THE MOST WATCHABLE SILENT FILM I HAVE YET SEEN!
This grand production manages to present itself as an intimate little film. Based on a poem, "Broken Blossoms" strikes just the right balance between emotions, such as, anguish and rage, as well as longing and caring.
THERE IS MORE:
This is a tragedy, to be sure, but it is a very moving one, with silent images that scream their meaning without words. D.W. Griffith certainly knew how to tell a story, and cast the right people, and production personel to make it work. The result is a potent drama that is way ahead of its time despite the lack of sound. The pacing in the film was balanced by changing the scenes, and then returning, and even including Battling Burrows [Donald Crisp] in a boxing match that was done quite well. These scene changes did a great deal to establish the mood, and to give us the feeling that we were heading toward a violently-dramatic climax. Like the Titanic had struck the iceberg 7 years earlier, we could see that the outcome in this touching drama was inevitable, but it was compelling and heartbreaking nevertheless.
-----*- LILLIAN GISH as Lucy Burrows -
Gish is amazing as Lucy Burrows, a teenage girl. Ms. Gish at the time was 26, but since she lived to be 100, it is not far-fetched to say she looked like an innocent young girl. She does some incredible pantomimes, especially the one depicting her desperation in the closet scene, when her father, Battling Burrows, was hacking his way in with an ax! However, it was the quiet, touching moments, that won me over. Like where we just saw her looking sadly at a flower she longed for, but didn't have enough aluminum foil with her to buy. Or, hurting quietly after being beaten by her father, and nursed kindly by the "Yellow Man". It was in scenes like these that she really appeared to be an angel. These are the kind of scenes that really made her shine. All in all, Ms. Gish showed incredible range in "Broken Blossoms", more than I thought possible in a silent film.
-----*- Richard Barthelmess as Cheng Haun, the Yellow Man -
Barthelmess plays a serene, and peacefully understated, Buddhist guardian angel, and protector to Lucy. His climactic clash with Battling Burrows represents the embodiment of his disdain, and disgust over the differences between eastern and western cultures that has troubled him since his arrival in London a decade earlier.
-----*- Donald Crisp as Battling Burrows -
Crisp plays a totally despicable single-father who happens to be a rather violent prize-fighter. Lucy is his doormat, and if she so much as frowns or spills food as she is serving him, she is in for a life-threatening whipping -- literally. That's right, and Battling Burrows keeps a huge bullwhip handy for meting out discipline to the frail little Lucy -- frequently. In the role, Crisp is a sensational scene stealer, and still manages to garner nothing but animosity from his audience. Without Crisp's wicked portrayal of his villainous role as an abusive father, the film's meaning would seem hollow and trite. Battling Burrows almost demonic actions, contrasts perfectly with that of the Yellow Man, making the motivations for Lucy and the urgency with which she flees her deadly home, seem all the more reasonable. It also allows The Yellow Man to respond rather extremely, but still believably, to Burrows violence toward Lucy, in violent contrast to his peaceful upbringing.
-----*- THE ACTORS
Lillian Gish - Lucy Burrows
Richard Barthelmess - Cheng Haun, the Yellow Man
Donald Crisp - Battling Burrows
Edward Peil Sr. - Evil Eye
Arthur Howard - Burrow's Manager
George Andre Beranger - The Spying One
-----*- PRODUCTION
D.W. Griffith - Director / Composer (Music Score) / Producer / Screenwriter
Billy Bitzer - Cinematographer
Karl Brown - Cinematographer
Hendrik Sartov - Cinematographer / Special Effects
Louis F. Gottschalk - Composer (Music Score)
James Smith - Editor
ABOUT THE DVD: KINO VIDEO DVD
TRANSFER QUALITY WAS VARIABLE BUT WATCHABLE THROUGHOUT - AUDIO SOUNDTRACK WAS REMIXED AND SO SOUNDED PERFECT
Simplistic and dated
A tender though simplistic effort by D. W. Griffith. Very dated, especially in regards to the oriental stereotypes; the main character is only referred to as the yellow man. This is ironic since Griffith's reason for making this film was to respond to claims that he was racist based on his earlier film The Birth of a Nation.
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