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Wonderful character development!

Powerful

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

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

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!

The reason I say that WAY DOWN EAST is a very good film for 1920 is that even by the mid-1920s, the style film this is would probably have seemed a bit old fashioned. So, compared to late silents it's not a great movie by any stretch but it is a decent movie nonetheless and better than most films of the day. So why is it old fashioned? Well, like the characters in many of the earlier D.W. Griffith films, the peopleof in the movie often seem very one-dimensional--like a 19th century morality play. For example, Lillian Gish plays a wonderful virginal sort, there is the town tattletale, the judgmental man, the cad and the professor--all stereotypes instead of real people. But despite all this, it still is a very good film.WAY DOWN EAST begins with a poor cousin (Lillian Gish) going to the big city to spend time with her rich relatives. At this home, she is spotted by a total cad (Lowell Sherman) and he eventually asks her to marry him. However, the marriage is fake--and Gish has no idea it's not legal. After getting her pregnant, Sherman runs away--leaving her to have the baby on her own. Soon the baby dies and Gish is forced to go look for work in another town. There she gets work as a maid and becomes a beloved member of the family--that is, until word gets to the townsfolk that Gish is "that kind of woman"! This leads to an amazingly climactic scene on the ice (reminscent of the video game "Frogger") that you just have to see to believe and it's one of the best scenes Griffith ever filmed---very tense and amazing even when seen almost 90 years later.What's to like about the film? Well, the biggest star of the movie are the special effects and camera work. As mentioned above, the ice scene is simply amazing, though the snow storm is also very realistic and well done. Also, there were some very lovely camera shots--such as the scene by the lake. All these made this a first-class project.Overall, this is an important film but one that I would recommend mostly to people who already love silents. They will enjoy it considerably. However, for people not accustomed to and appreciative of the silents, it's probably one to hold off on--as you may be too quick to dismiss it because of the preachy plot and one-dimensional characters. For 1920, it was quite the accomplishment.

Lillian Gish (as Anna Moore) lives with her poor mother in Greenville, a remote New England village. A sore need for money demands Ms. Gish leave for Boston, to appeal to some wealthy relatives, the Tremonts. Richard Barthelmess (as David Bartlett) lives elsewhere; "though of plain stock, he has been tutored by poets and visions wide as the world." In the city, Gish meets Lowell Sherman (as Lennox Sanderson). Mr. Sherman's hobby is "ladies, Ladies, LADIES!"; specifically, he is interested in the sexual conquest of virginal young women. Gish's delicate beauty is "a whip to Sherman's jaded appetite"; and, she innocently enters his clutches. Sherman tricks Gish into a mock marriage, and leaves her pregnant… Deceptively subtitled "A Simple Story of Plain People"; possibly, director D.W. Griffith was seeking to enhance his film's dramatic twists and turns; since, while Gish's "Anna" could be considered of "plain" stock, what happens her could not be called "simple". This film reunites Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess, after the successful "Broken Blossoms" (1919); their "Way Down East" performances are also stunning, though Barthelmess has less to do this time around. The spectacular ending is still riveting after all these years; but, it works best after you've seen the preceding story of degradation and love.The flaw in "Way Down East" may be Griffith's overindulgence in ludicrous "slapstick"-type humor; this is most explicit in Edgar Nelson's "Hi Holler" character, which really lays an egg. The silliness also rears its ugly head on Creighton Hale's occasionally cow-licked crown. Neither "True Heart Susie" (1919) nor "The Greatest Question" (1919) veered so wildly into this form of lunacy. But, in the end, these indulgences cannot diminish the great performances, and spectacular ending of "Way Down East". The "great ice-break" is absolutely indispensable. ********** Way Down East (9/3/20) D.W. Griffith ~ Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Lowell Sherman, Creighton Hale