Broken Blossoms [1919] [DVD]

I've loved this film since I was a teenager. I've even read the bizarre short story that inspired it. Lillian Gish's character, Lucy, is supposed to be twelve in the story, but D.W. Griffith thought the horror of the abuse Lucy endures would traumatize a child actress, so Griffith changed Lucy's age to sixteen, and cast twenty-two year old Gish, who at five-foot-two, about ninety lbs., and in pancake make-up, manages to pull it off.

Child abuse was a new concept when this film was made. The first child abuse case in the US had been prosecuted during Griffith's lifetime (under animal cruelty laws). In order to play to audiences of 1918, when whipping children was acceptable punishment for minor violations, the abuse of Lucy, has to be severe.

Griffith doesn't need to look far. According to the original story, Lucy's boxer father isn't permitted to "strike" his "manager or to throw chairs at him," "but to use a dog-whip on a small child is permissible and quite as satisfying." So Lucy's bruised body "crept about Poplar and Limehouse. Always the white face was scarred." (I have seen Griffith's copy of the book, with his marginal notes, as well as a monograph by the author of the particular story, with signed thanks from Griffith and Gish.)

There are many ironies in this film. This is the first film treatment of child abuse, and it shows horror, because only vicious horror will convince an audience of 1918 that a child is better off away from her father.

The film also shows scenes in an opium den, at a time when this drug is perfectly legal. Our hero is a user, with no intent of quitting. The hero, played beautifully by Richard Barthelmess, is a white man in Asian make-up, because he kisses his under-age girlfriend. That he is an adult in love, and building a shrine to his sixteen year old love, makes no one blink. But to kiss the girl, he can't be a real Chinaman; people have to know that under the make-up, there's not actually any miscegenation.

This film couldn't be made today. For this alone, it is fascinating.

But beyond its historical fascination, this is a beautiful film. It is a romance unlike any other. It's emotionally wrenching, all told, yet there are some moments that are so touching, and so satisfying, they are worth everything it takes to get ahold of this film.

Many people call the film melodramatic, but often silent films are shown at the wrong speed; they're too fast, and this has to do with the way they were filmed opposed to the way sound films are made. If you have a choice among different copies, look at the run time, and pick the longest one. At the right speed, this film is well-paced and poignant. Dramatic, sad, but not melodramatic.

This film reaches in a seizes your heart; you'll never forget it.

As WWI was ending, it seemed the world had lost its innocence. The director who himself would become outdated within another decade, decided to tackle the subject of child abuse. D.W. Griffith, one of the true pioneers of American film, did so in tender fashion with one of his most simple yet most beautiful films.

The Great War may have ended, but something far worse was sweeping the globe and it would take more lives than the war had. Lillian Gish came down with the Spanish flu before filming began but, rather than remain in bed waiting to die, she donned a surgical mask and went to rehearsals for "Broken Blossoms." She would survive, but not before the film itself almost suffered the fate she had feared.

Viewed today, this is a somewhat dated but lovely and atmospheric film of great tenderness. It was not met with enthusiasm, however, by Adolph Zukor. He was not interested in art but profits and, perhaps rightly, felt that such a depressing film with such a sad ending would not go over well with the public. Griffith would borrow the money to purchase the film back from him and release it through United Artist. It would be a huge commercial and critical success and prove Zukor wrong.

Lillian Gish would have many poignant moments as a girl never shown kindness or love. Left with an abusive father (Donald Crisp) who beats her on a regular basis, her youth is stolen and full of despair. Both Gish and Mary Pickford would continue to play younger than their actual age, and Gish loses herself as a 12 year old with a heart full of hurt.

Richard Barthelmess is the Oriental shopkeeper who loves her and will help her escape her dreary lot in life. Once full of hope himself, he has long since abandoned his efforts to bring the ways of peace to this side of the world and lost himself in the opium dens of the Limehouse district where they reside.

There is a true tenderness here as he will come out of his haze long enough to show Lucy what love is, while not taking advantage of her. Griffith makes it clear with a couple of "almost" kisses that he loves her but respects her purity. It is ironic that scenes like those, which were the very ones that made him suddenly "out of date," are also the ones which have made films like "Broken Blossoms" survive as art.

Gish is really special as a young waif warned against marriage by those afflicted, and warned against free love by those girls in the profession. It leaves her with no place to turn except towards Battling Burrows and the humiliation and pain that comes with him.

A hidden ribbon is the closest thing to love Lucy has ever known until she is cared for by Barthelmess after one of her beatings. A scene where she does not have enough tin foil to purchase a flower is not easily forgotten.

Donald Crisp is somewhat exaggerated as was the custom in many silents, but it does not detract from the beauty of the film itself. When news gets to Battling Burrows that Lucy is with the Chinaman, tragedy will soon follow.

The HBO version has a specially tinted print from the Rohhauer Collection and a new recording of the original score. There is also a brief introduction from Lillian Gish herself in this presentation from David Gill and Kevin Brownlow. The Kino version is quite excellent also from what I have been told and is still in print for purchase as new. Film buffs, and silent film buffs in particular, cannot go wrong with this film. It is a restful and gentle painting of a heartbreaking scene.

"Broken Blossoms" is one of the most sentimental and heartrending films I have ever seen. It couldn't be more uncommercial. Lillian Gish gives such a strong, convincing performance as a frail girl who has struggled under an abusive boxer father and finds true love and compassion through a poor Chinese storekeeper (Richard Barthelmess). Donald Crisp as the father gives reliably strong contrast from Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess's characters, which adds to the already strong credibility they give. The scene when Gish being trapped in a closet while Crisp tries to get her out is very intense. Even more intense is the end. But what touched me most was when the Chinese man went out of his way to decorate the girl's room like a princess's, and gave her beautiful clothes to wear. This film is so sentimental it seemed like a dream. I highly recommend it.