Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Carl Schultz 'Lyrical' is a wonderfully appropriate word to describe 'Broken Blossoms.' The picture is almost like a sonnet in its delicate perfection, poignant almost to the point of melancholy, with a running time that seems much, much shorter than its actual eighty-nine minutes. This is one of Griffith's 'small' pictures, unlike the super-productions such as 'Intolerance' or 'Orphans of the Storm,' or even 'Way Down East.' Still, it's difficult to believe that the intricate and detailed and richly authentic waterfront location was a set constructed to Griffith's specifications for the film.Like most other students of film history, I have conflicted feelings about David Wark Griffith and his legacy of racism and intolerance, as is plainly demonstrated in his watershed picture 'The Birth of a Nation.' But still, I don't know that it's fair to ignore or deny or even question his ability to use the cinematic medium to create drama, establish dramatic nuance, and express emotion, particularly in an art form which at the time was necessarily speechless.'Broken Blossoms' as a film was actually suggested to Griffith by Douglas Fairbanks, who'd read the Thomas Burke source material, the short story collection 'Limehouse Nights.' And according to actress Lillian Gish, who like Richard Barthelmess gives probably her career-best performance in this picture, the film's release was delayed after production and principal photography was completed because Griffith was so emotionally devastated and drained by the filming experience that he couldn't face editing the picture. 'Broken Blossoms' eventually became the very first motion picture released by the new United Artists Corporation, the elite production company formed in 1919 by cinematic superstars Griffith, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and Doug Fairbanks.Should you decide to see the picture, try to find the 'Griffith Masterworks' version with the soulful Joseph Turrin music score, which enhances and augments the sadness of the story. The film was popular enough at the time of its original release that a song entitled 'Broken Blossoms' was composed and recorded and became moderately popular. Turrin located a copy of the original sheet music of that lovely song, and performs it on the piano in one of the 'Masterworks' extras.Those extras also include a filmed introduction by Lillian Gish and the entire text of the original Thomas Burke short story. And as an extra and unintentional bonus, watch closely about twenty minutes into the picture, right after the inter-title which reads, "The girl with the tear-worn face": The shot shows Gish looking into a store window, and reflected in the window glass the viewer can see the ghostly image of photographer Billy Bitzer standing behind his tripod camera and then Griffith himself in a vest and shirtsleeves walking briskly onto the set and seating himself in a canvas chair beside Bitzer. The unintended action was a mistake and a production error and as such the moment violates the illusion and therefore distracts the viewer's attention momentarily from the drama, but still it's a fascinating curio of motion picture history.'Broken Blossoms' is highly recommended. Far beyond a picture which will stay with you for a long time, it's a picture you'll never forget...nor quite ever get over.

framptonhollis The word "beautiful" has been used time and time again to describe the D.W. Griffith directed masterpiece that is "Broken Blossoms". To be perfectly honest, it's hard not to describe it using that word for it is, indeed, quite beautiful. Perhaps this is the most beautiful of all silent cinema!Being one of the first films based on a poem, "Broken Blossoms" certainly has a poetic vibe to it. From the story/events that take place to the imagery to the editing techniques, the film feels like poetry, and I feel as if that was Mr. Griffith's goal in a way. To make a truly poetic film (however I, of course, cannot 100% speak for the man he's been dead for years).With some really mature themes attached to it (some sequences containing abuse towards Lilian Gish's character are still hard to watch today), "Broken Blossoms" is ahead of its time in almost every way. D.W. Griffith has been labeled the father of film, and I believe that he certainly deserves that label. As evident in films like "The Birth of a Nation", "Intolerance", and this (much smaller scale) film, Griffith certainly changed the cinema forever. The editing and filmmaking techniques used here are astoundingly powerful increasing the emotional intensity.It's hard for me to imagine "Broken Blossoms" as a sound film, because the silence of it really enhances the beauty and poeticism. Griffith's editing is somehow made more intense by that strong silence, and the emotional impact is greatly benefited.At only 90 minutes, "Broken Blossoms" is short, simple, and simply wonderful.

disinterested_spectator In 1915, D.W. Griffith made "Birth of a Nation," which was an entertaining movie, but had the slight drawback of being the most racist movie ever made. To atone for this great sin, he had to do penance, and that's why he made "Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages" the very next year, whose message was that we should all be tolerant of one another, something the glorious Ku Klux Klan of the previous movie definitely was not. "Intolerance" was a boring movie, but it had to be done. Unfortunately, it was also done to us, punishing us for enjoying "Birth of a Nation," I suppose.Griffith must have still been feeling guilty by 1919, because in that year he also made "Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl," in which he tried to atone for his racist classic one more time. The very title may sound a little racist to our twenty-first century ears, but he probably thought it was an improvement over the source material, a short story by Thomas Burke entitled "The Chink and the Child."The Asian in both titles is Cheng Huan, played by Richard Barthelmess in yellowface. He is a Chinese Buddhist who decides to move to London to bring enlightenment to the white race. He is unable to bring said enlightenment to the British, however, no doubt because the people in England were not sure what to make of a man who was apparently incapable of using the muscles in his face to form an expression. I guess that was Griffith's idea of the inscrutable Oriental. However, Huan is able to achieve nirvana on a regular basis at the local opium den.Whereas Barthelmess played Huan without an expression, Donald Crisp played Battling Burrows with enough expressions on his face for the two of them. Burrows is a boxer who enjoys being cruel to his young daughter Lucy. In fact, the only time Burrows is not bullying or beating Lucy is when he is at the saloon or in the boxing ring. But he insists that she put a smile on her face, and so Lucy uses her two fingers to force her lips into a smile, which is ludicrous. Supposedly, Lillian Gish, who played Lucy, came up with that idea, and apparently Griffith liked it, because she does it over and over again. The reason for this, presumably, is that if she had simply forced a smile on her face the way a normal person might do, we in the audience might be so dull-witted as to think she was actually happy.After a particularly severe beating, Lucy accidentally stumbles into Huan's shop. When the effect of his opium pipe wears off, Huan notices her on the floor and takes her upstairs to his bedroom. His love for her is pure and noble, but expressed in such a way as to seem downright creepy. But when her father finds out she has been in Huan's bedroom, he beats her with a whip until she dies. Huan goes over to where Burrows lives, and, discovering that Lucy is dead, pulls out a revolver and shoots Burrows several times, killing him on the spot. Huan goes home and commits suicide by disemboweling himself with a knife. I thought that was something a Japanese Samurai might do as a matter of honor, not something a Buddhist is likely to do, but then I wasn't aware that Buddhists went around packing heat, so what do I know?This movie is simplistically didactic, instructing us that an Asian might actually be a better person than a Caucasian. And to benefit from that lesson, we have to sit through what may be the most miserable ninety minutes in cinematic history.

JRamos3 Upon first viewing this film, needless to say that I was a little more than put off. As this was the second silent film I had watched this week, and only the second ever, I was disturbed by what I can only imagine are common trends among movies of the silent film era: misogyny and racial bigotry. As in Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus", the role of the heel is played by a brutish father who mercilessly, and without any sense of remorse, admonishes and physically abuses his daughter. This is an interesting concept in the sense that this movie was made in 1919, and Chaplins in 1928, during the height of the woman's suffrage movement in America. At a time when women were striving for equality in the voting booths, it seems as though what they really should have been working towards is equality in films. The fact that all the characters in the film except the "yellow man" regard the fathers blatant abuse of his daughter with such a cavalier attitude speaks volumes as to what the prevailing thoughts on a woman's place in society should have been. That being said, overall, the movie was captivating, albeit a bit slow in getting the story moving. ]A second particular notion worth mentioning is the way in which the characters of different races regard each other. All the "yellow man" wants to do is spread his Buddhist beliefs of peace and good will to the savage Anglo-Saxons, while later on in the film a priest says that his brother is going to spread the "good word" to the oriental heathens. Such obvious disdain being portrayed on the screen is no doubt in some way indicative of the real feelings regarding foreigners that most whites had. Additionally, if you prescribe to the maxim that art imitates life, then this notion of accepted racism is even more plausible. All in all, this was an enjoyable movie apart from what was at times blatant racist dialogue and action.