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In Reply to: I did, but as you pointed out the story is already well known; it's the back story which requires greater exploration. posted by Audiophilander on January 19, 2006 at 12:07:53:
Total disagreement on Gish's performance, I think she actually underplayed several scenes of great hearbreak.
You don't appreciate Griffith's technique, I do. I greatly appreciate his "undertelling" of a story, of letting the images "speak" and allowing the viewer to fill in many of the gaps.
I'd compare this more to Pandora's Box, as a story of a woman's descent, though in Griffith's it's a bit more positive!
Of course the story isn't new... as Griffith himself points out in the prologue, it's an old story and extremely common--- more's the drama and tragedy.
The greatness of the film resides in Gish's performance, in her portrayal of indomitability and courage, and in the marvelously cast group of tangential performers. Incidentally, Richard Batehelmess is iconic, isn't he?
Follow Ups:
> > > "You don't appreciate Griffith's technique, I do. I greatly appreciate his "undertelling" of a story, of letting the images "speak" and allowing the viewer to fill in many of the gaps." < < <As I've said, I don't dislike Griffith's technique, but we're apparently getting different things from it. Yes, he does let his images speak, but at the same time he frequently lets them run on way too long; I'm not speaking specifically of Way Down East here, but making a general observation about his technique.
D. W. Griffith's films frequently don't pass the "wife" test, which is whether she falls asleep watching. Of course she isn't nearly as much of a fan of silent films as I am, but the ones that hold her attention without the snooz factor she appreciates and the ones where snores punctuate the orchestral cues don't cut it.
FYI, I like Gish's performances and respect her artistry; in fact, I have a number of her films in my collection, but as much as I admire Griffith's contributions to the cinema arts I can't bring myself to return to his films as often as I do the works of other great silent directors. Griffith may have pointed the way, but to paraphrase the title of a well known book on silent cinema, the parade passed him.
AuPh
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