8. Way Down East (1920)

Title: Way Down East
Genre: Drama, Romance
IMDB User Score: 8.1/10 Stars
Year: 1920
Language: English
Format: Black & White, Silent
Length: 100 Minutes
Director: D.W. Griffith
Producer: D.W. Griffith
Screenplay: Anthony Paul Kelly, Joseph R Grismer., D.W. Griffith, adapted from the play Way Down East by Joseph R. Grismer, William A. Brady and the play Annie Laurie by Lottie Blair Parker
Photography: Billy Bitzer, Hendrik Sartov
Music: Louis Silvers
Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Lowell Sherman, Burr McIntosh, Kate Bruce, Mary Hay, Creighton Hale, Emily Fitzroy, Porter Strong, George Neville, Edgar Nelson
Oscar: No
Oscar Nomination: No
Budget: $700,000
Revenue: $5,000,000
Reason it’s Worth Watching:

- Has one of the most memorable climaxes of the silent era; a well shot climax, which features Griffith at his best when it comes to pacing. The climax is notable for ACTUALLY being shot on a treacherous semi-frozen river, with no safety devices. These dangerous filming conditions caused Lillian Gish to have a hand impairment the rest of her life, due to the cold damage.
- Some sequences of the film were shot with a very early form of Technicolor
- The 4th highest grossing silent film in history

Of all the Griffith films I have seen, this is ironically his simplest and most straight forward endeavor. I say ironically because it’s also one of his most popular. The film is based upon a late 1800’s play of the same name, which had become a dated story at the time of this film rendition. Griffith set out to modernize and re-invigorate the tale by using the magic of cinema. He succeeded thanks in large part to his camera men and the ever brilliant Lillian Gish.

This is not a groundbreaking film. The story is very straight forward and, while it deals with the slightly taboo subject of pre-marital sex and the resulting illegitimate children, it is nowhere NEAR as political as most of Griffith’s other movies. The movie is popular primarily because of the climax. Upon walking away from this movie, pretty much all there is to talk about, is that damn climax. The scene is impressive. Even by today’s standards, it’s pretty intense. The heroine, having just been banished from the household that most of the movie focuses around, runs out into a blizzard and passes out from exhaustion on a frozen river, which breaks apart and carries our heroine away on a slab of ice towards a raging waterfall (cut-away shots filmed courtesy of Niagara Falls). Our hero chases after her and daringly has to leap from ice slab to ice slab to rescue her. Really, this scene is pretty awesome. The fact that they pretty much ACTUALLY DID IT on a real river (albeit, with an artificial waterfall) makes it all the more impressive. The pacing and camera work are also worthy of much praise. The sequence is easily the earliest example I’ve seen of really GOOD dramatic build-up.

Beyond that, this movie is pretty basic. I mean, it’s definitely enjoyable, it just lacks the revolutionary feeling Griffith usually tries to bring to his movies. There are some mildly entertaining slap-stick characters, and a really dislikable villain. I could praise Lillian Gish’s performance, but it wouldn’t be anything I haven’t already said. She is just amazing. Her facial expressions are so good; it really makes stupid things like sound and dialogue feel unimportant. Basically, I would recommend this movie just to see what a 1920 blockbuster looks like. It’s funny to draw the parallel between then and now. Back then, really deep movies like Intolerance (1916) failed to live up to action filled movies like this; where as today, Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) will be over-shadowed by Avatar (2009) every day of the week. It’s just pretty amusing how, if you really look at the first movies ever made, the audiences for them were really attracted to the same things audiences like today. Not that this is a bad thing. Steak is great, but every once and awhile, a guy really just wants a good cheeseburger.