MortalKombatFan1 An early silent film tragedy, beautifully photographed and directed, and featuring a moving performance from a young Lilian Gish. Set in London's Lighthouse District, she plays Lucy, a girl who is constantly abused by her temperamental boxer father (Donald Crisp). She lives in squalor, and her only possessions are a few coins, some tin foil and a letter from her dead mother. One day she runs away from home into the shop of a china man (Richard Barthelmess). He's worshiped her from afar before, and now he feels the need to care for her, loving her in his own silent way. Though the story is simple and fairly dated (the moving being adapted from the story 'The Chink and the Child'), 'Broken Blossoms' is a beautiful film, showing why silent film is a lost art, the pantomime performances of the three main players being fascinating to watch and emotionally resonating. Sally's attempts to smiling by pushing up her lips with her fingers is harrowing, and her father's physical and mental abuse of her is still effective in it's brutishness. The loving gaze of The Yellow Man as he takes care of Lucy by her bedside in his shop says more than title cards could (though there are some beautifully worded inter-titles throughout).The relationship between the two is delicate and subtle, his intentions for her not being entirely clear. When he tries to kiss her, we see her point of view - seeing him in extreme close up, coming towards her, looking almost as her father did when he stares at her. She moves away from him, and but he's understanding. It's not typical early silent film acting - being exaggerated as possible to get across an emotion to all audience members in the theater - but rather screen acting, mixing film techniques and nuance to convey what each character is feeling. Also effective today is the use of editing and cross-cutting between scenes, contrasting The Yellow Man's life in China with the spiritually corrupted London and its opium dens. The scene where Suzy is hiding in terror from her father in a closet while he strikes the door down with an ax, and the Yellow Man is running to save her is truly suspenseful as well.Nearly one hundred years old, 'Broken Blossoms' is still fantastic, and one of the best silent films I've seen.My blog: www.dynamitefilms.blogspot.com

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.

evening1 One of the books on my shelf refers to families as "God's little concentration camps," and this movie perfectly encapsulates that potentiality.Lucy's sole purpose in life seems to be as lightning rod for her primitive father's rages. In London's immigrant-filled Limetown district, Lucy can run but cannot hide from the whip of Battling Burrowes.I'd never before seen Lillian Gish and I'm highly impressed. Who will forget her frenzy in being cornered in that flat, pursued by a maniac with a hatchet (did this scene inspire one decades later in "The Shining")?Nor had I been familiar with the work of D.W. Griffith, but I sure am curious now! I'd never before seen a story in which an acolyte of an Eastern religion sets out for the West to enlighten the heathens there. (Now there's a prescient concept!) Chen Huang, played by the Western actor Richard Barthelmess, creates an odd persona. On the one hand he is a saint who only wants the best for Lucy -- yet there are hints he is sexually attracted to the girl. (When she senses this and recoils, he backs off.) Like a strong perfume, his exoticism keeps one interested. This film brutally encapsulates the unreflective soul, in the character of Burrowes, played so ably and rawly by Donald Crisp. A tiny quibble is the plot twist that shows the slimy friend of the boxer discovering Lucy in an upstairs bedroom. I found this rather improbable. "Broken Blossoms" is devastating to watch and contemplate. How much has changed, really, in the last 100 years?

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.