Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

CJBx7 WAY DOWN EAST (1920) is considered one of DW Griffith's best movies. The story revolves around Anna Moore (Lillian Gish), an innocent country girl who goes to the city when she and her mother need money. During her stay with her rich relations, she meets Lennox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman), an amoral cad who dupes her into a sham marriage and dumps her when he learns that she's pregnant. She gives birth, but the baby dies. Anna eventually winds up working on the Bartlett family's farm, hoping to make a new start. She falls in love with the son, David (Richard Barthelmess), but an unexpected development causes Anna's past to catch up with her…Following is my review.SCRIPT: The story is complex and for the most part very involving. Griffith does succumb to his weakness for preachy and flowery intertitles once again, and I found some of them groan inducing. I wish that Griffith had used the visual means at his disposal rather than using his title cards to telegraph plot developments or the feelings of the characters. In spite of that, the story was enjoyable. The story attacks the sexual double standard that lets men play and makes women pay, as well as the emotional damage caused by self-righteousness without mercy and meddlesome gossip. Anna is a well-developed character, and the love that arises between her and David Bartlett is believable. There is also a love triangle that seems irrelevant at first, but helps to build up to the climax. However, the dated and corny country bumpkin humor that pops up every so often detracts from the story and slows the movie's momentum. SCORE: 7.5/10ACTING: Without a doubt, this is Lillian Gish's vehicle, and she shows why she is so highly regarded. Her performance is dramatic without being exaggerated, and she conveys all of the Anna's many emotional states with a seeming minimum of effort. Gish looks like she was made to play this role. Richard Barthelmess was a dependably likable and naturalistic actor, and he complements Gish beautifully in his playing of the understanding, sensitive David Bartlett. Lowell Sherman was a revelation to me. I had never heard of him before, but he played the part of the suave ladies' man exceptionally well. Sherman acts in a realistic manner and occasionally gets us to feel a twinge of sympathy for Sanderson on the few occasions when the character feels his conscience affecting him. Also worth noting is Mary Hay, who plays the elder Bartlett's niece and is involved in the above love triangle; she is charming without being cloying or cutesy. Many of the numerous supporting players, though, provide rather broad performances for comic relief that contrast badly with the main protagonists. For me, the three leads and Mary Hay provided the bulk of the acting interest in this movie. ACTING: 7.5/10 CINEMATOGRAPHY/PRODUCTION: Griffith shows his considerable skills in this film. Billy Bitzer again shows why he is such an influential cinematographer with well-composed medium and long shots, intimate close-ups, and occasional use of tracking and panning. The scenery in the countryside is lush and beautiful, and is captured superbly by Bitzer's lens. Tinting is used to great expressive effect to convey time, place, and mood. The scene on the ice floes is justly regarded as one of the most dramatic and exciting sequences of silent cinema, and it is very well paced. Unfortunately, it's hard to completely assess the film in this regard because some sequences are lost now, and have been replaced on the Kino version by title cards and still photographs. Some of the editing is a little awkward, with actions being repeated in a few frames. SCORE: 9/10 SUMMARY: WAY DOWN EAST boasts fine performances and an involving story, centered around a heroine very well portrayed by Lillian Gish. The cinematography is first-rate, taking full advantage of the beautiful scenery. However, the "comic relief" elements are corny and broadly played, and add unnecessary padding to the running time. In spite of that, though, the central story is still moving and powerful. SCORE: 8/10

Jackson Booth-Millard From director D.W. Griffith (The Birth of a Nation, Orphans of the Storm), this is one of the first few silent films to be listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I am obviously keen to complete as much of it as possible, and it was easy to get the chance to see this title. Basically Lennox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman) is the rich, handsome man-about-town, but he is amongst those that are exceptionally selfish and think only of themselves and their own pleasure, and he has found himself a vulnerable victim to be part of his inconsiderate scheme. Anna Moore (Intolerance's Lillian Gish) is the innocent poor country girl who meets Lennox, who convinces her he has feelings, and she is tricked into believing a fake wedding, and he just he just uses her, has his way with her, and then he leaves her when he finds out she is pregnant with his baby. The child is born and named Trust Lennox, but she has no choice but to care for the baby herself, and after some time tragedy strikes when the baby dies, and in deep despair she wanders the streets trying to find work and ways to get by. Anna eventually finds a job working with Squire Bartlett (Burr McIntosh), and she meets his son David (Richard Barthelmess), he falls in love with her but she rejects any attempted advances towards her because her traumatic past, and worse comes when Lennox returns. He is seen lusting after local girl Kate Brewster - the Squire's Niece (Mary Hay), and when he sees his former wife he tries to convince her to leave, possibly with him, she refuses but does promise that she won't reveal anything to anyone about the past with him. Eventually though Squire Bartlett learns from Martha Perkins (Vivia Ogden), the town gossip, about Anna's past, and in anger he throws her out into a snow storm, but before leaving she does tell about Lennox, respected by all, about what he did to her and being the father to her dead baby. While she is getting lost in the storm which rages on, a search party is formed by leader David, she is unconscious and floating down the icy river towards the waterfall, but at the last moment she is rescued by David, and in the final scene Anna and him get married. Also starring Mrs. David Landau as Anna Moore's Mother, Josephine Bernard as Mrs. Emma Tremont, Mrs. Morgan Belmont as Diana Tremont and Norma Shearer as Barn Dancer. Gish gives an eloquent and engaging performance as the young woman who goes through trauma and heartache and you can feel a lot of sympathy for, the other cast members act very well also, the visual elements definitely make the film distinctive, I admit the story without any sound was a little hard to follow at times, and the film could have been shortened somewhat, nearly lasting three hours, but with memorably watchable moments it is a worthwhile silent melodrama. Very good!

tomgillespie2002 Anna (Lillian Gish), is a poor country girl who arrives at her rich auntie's mansion to ask for money. The spoiled, womanising Lennox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman), is bored with seducing upper-class girls and becomes infatuated by Anna. Seeing that she a moral, God-fearing woman, Lennox proposes to her and arranges a sham marriage. Anna becomes pregnant, only for Lennox to reveal his scheme and kick her out, and Anna's baby dies. Lost and emotionally damaged, Anna wanders to a nearby farm, ran by Squire Bartlett (Burr McIntosh) and his scripture-quoting wife Mother (Kate Bruce). Squire's son David (Richard Barthelmess) falls for Anna, only for Lennox to show up lusting after another girl.It's hard for me to bring myself to criticise and evaluate a work of D.W. Griffith. As questionable as his political and racial views were, he is one of cinema's true innovators, and even here, back in 1920, he employs an early Technicolor process and an eye for epic cinema. Yet the film hasn't dated well at all, and the religious and moral preaching, and the over-use of title cards, makes the film ridiculously old- fashioned and tedious. This is Griffith's ode to the idea that God created one woman for every man, and states it is a story of women everywhere, who suffer at the hands of men's selfish womanising. It's quite hard to swallow morality lessons from the man that made The Birth of a Nation (1915), a film that glamorised the Ku Klux Klan, and made black people out to be nothing more than loutish animals.Yet the film does display Griffith's film-making ability, especially in the famous climax that shows David rescuing an unconscious Anna from an ice flood. It even holds up today, with the lack of CGI effects or actors on wires making it even more impressive, and it's all captured beautifully by Billy Bitzer and Hendrik Sartov's cinematography. And Gish, one of the most successful and hard-working actresses in film history (and one of the few survivors of the death of the silent era) is exceptional. Her timid Anna is beaten down at every turn by the amoral upper classes, who, in Griffith's eyes, are defying God with their whoring and luxurious, indulgent lives. Yet overall, at 145 minutes, the film drags, especially when Griffith shifts his concentration on various supporting sub-plots, that play out like intrusive and uninteresting vignettes. Certainly worth seeing for some fine technical work and the captivating Gish, but not a film I can see myself needing to watch again.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

kidboots An old stage melodrama, written by Lottie Blair Parker and first performed around 1895, the story was old fashioned even in 1920. D. W. Griffith paid $175,000 for the film rights and a lot of people thought he was mad. As a film for his "muse", Lillian Gish, Griffith knew exactly what he was doing. He made the story seem so fresh and new and the "last minute rescue" on the ice wasn't found in the original play at all."A Simple Story of Plain People" was set in New England and Lillian Gish plays Anna Moore - the first scene she plays only with her expressive eyes and they show her every thought. It was truly wonderful acting. Anna is going to stay at her cousins, the Tremonts, in the hope that they will help her mother financially.She is allowed to dress for the Tremonts ball, although not invited to attend. An eccentric aunt (Florence Short) has other ideas and with a more alluring dress makes Anna the belle of the ball. Anna makes the acquaintance of Lennox Sanderson ( a very dapper Lowell Sherman), a wealthy womanizer, who determines to seduce Anna. He persuades her to agree to a secret marriage performed by a friend that he has paid, to impersonate a clergyman. Lillian Gish is so poignant and moving as Anna - at first so wide eyed and fluttering as an innocent country girl, then as the grieving young mother forced to baptise her own baby before it dies, she gives an spellbinding performance!!!She is forced to leave the lodgings because of gossip and the scene where she is trudging up the road, alone and forlorn, leaves a lump in your throat. She finds work at Squire Bartlett's (Burr McIntosh) residence, where she meets David (Richard Barthelmess). It seems Sanderson lives nearby and warns her to leave. David sees that she is upset and begs her to stay. She soon becomes a beloved member of the family, although the stern puritans know nothing of her past.The land lady from the lodging house visits the local sewing circle group, sees Anna passing and then tells all she knows about her which is quickly passed on to the Squire. He promptly turns Anna out into a raging snow storm and what a storm it was!!! The ice scene looked so real because it was. Clarine Seymour, originally given the role Mary Hay inherited, supposedly died from exposure to the almost artic conditions of the location. Lillian Gish recalls suggesting letting her arm and hair fall over the ice floe for dramatic effect and three weeks later she claimed her arm still felt like an icicle.It didn't originally receive praise from everyone - Alexander Woollcott from "The Screen" seemed to think the ice was papier mache and Robert Benchley from "Life" gave a slightly satirical review. They were both from 1920.I gave it 9 out of 10. I also agree it was slightly too long and there was a bit too much "unfunny" humour as well.Highly Recommended.