It is about time that D.W. Griffith was rescued from the false pedestal of an outmoded pioneer. The cinema of Griffith is no more outmoded, after all, that the drama of Aeschylus.
--Andrew Sarris
One of the most exciting and beautiful film experiences I have had was seeing all of Griffith's work at MoMA in 1975, celebrating Griffith's 100th birthday. It included his epics as well as his intimate films, many of them --such as Way Down East --starring Lillian Gish. Gish is often alone in close-up in Way Down East, beautifully lit and framed, as her husband turns out to be a phony who quickly discards her when she become pregnant and her mother and baby die. It is a melodrama, indeed, based on a Victorian-era play, and not without some unsuccessful bumpkin humor. Gish is seduced in the city and faces wrath in the country when it is discovered that she had a baby without a husband. When Gish is turned out of a farmhouse she points out that the man who seduced her is sitting as an honored guest at the table and why isn't something done about him!
Gish is turned out into a snowstorm and followed by Richard Bathelmess, the son of the farmer. who chases after her onto ice that is breaking up and flowing to a waterfall. Gish is rescued just in the nick of time in a beautifully crafted and edited scene of ice floes on the river. Nature is important in Griffith's films and the beauty of "the wind in the trees" --a crucial part of Griffith's mise-en-scene -- is contrasted with the ability of nature to suddenly turn on you.
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