E.T. Reviews

(OK) Extreme Gish victimization, but shw knows momentarily a sort of love. Griffith, at least this time, shows affection for diversity (well it is Barthelmess, but you can't ask more from DWG)...The Gish half smile is a label...

D.W. Griffith is nowadays considered the first great movie director and even though I'm really curious to check his work, I also have some mixed feelings about the guy, even before I have watched anything he made yet. Indeed, his great masterpiece 'The Birth of Nation' is highly controversial but, still, considering myself a great movie buff, I couldn't avoid his work for much longer so I decided to check this flick. Eventually, I thought it was pretty good but there were many elements, inherent to the era that bothered me. I mean, the main character is an Asian man called 'The Yellow Man' and he was played by a white guy. I'm really sensitive to this kind of things and it was pretty offensive. Of course, I know, it was a common thing back in those days but, still, I couldn't help thinking that with an Asian actor, the whole thing would have been greatly improved. Still, it remains a solid drama, very dark and gloomy, and from a visual point of view, it was quite amazing. Indeed, without any dialog, Griffith still managed to drag you into this dark tale and it was quite fascinating. You can see that everything was shot on stage but the details were great and created an immersive atmosphere. Finally, it displayed one of the most striking death scenes I have ever seen (this girl, Lillian Gish, sure could act). To conclude, even though it is pretty dated, it still remains a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.