"The love story at the center of Broken Blossoms is deliberately overstuffed but unmistakably colored with infinite shades of biting irony and social critique." - Ed Gonzalez

DW Griffith just can't help but be racist. Even when he's trying to paint the Chinese as the good characters he has Lillian Gish using "Chinky" as a term of endearment and the title cards constantly referring to "the yellow man." It's also largely a fairly dull movie, though there is compelling melodrama for the last 20 minutes or so. Still, not enough to save this.

Gish gives one of the great performances here. And Griffith atones--at least in part--for "Birth of a Nation."

119

#125

ACT CHINKIER LIKE WITH UR EYES OR SOMETHN

Griffith tries to say he's not racist by making an incredibly racist film. But if you look past that, it has some amazing acting (especially from Gish and Crisp) and it winds up being quite entertaining.

Unintentionally hilarious nowadays. But it's still great.

Bullshit ending. A real chinaman would have used his fists instead of a gun.

lilian gish'in tatliligi

Griffith iyi de Amerika'nin ici bos optimizmini ve her dusunceyi ve kulturu fazla fazla basitlestirmesini -bi de bunu gururla yapmasini- sevmiyorum.

# 100

It tries to be so much, a tale of forbidden love, a light examination of racism, a story about poverty and abuse, but it spreads itself too thin and has too many slow moments to really be effective. While the constant referencing of the chinese character as "chink" and "yellow man" could come off as social commentary in better films, or overt racism in worse ones, it mostly just makes the film come off as ignorant and simplistic. It's ultimately interesting to watch, but not especially good.

A few sticky racist issues aside, the story is tender and engaging, the subject matter is admirable, the text of the intertitles is lovely and poetic, and the tragedy is touching. However, it's all a bit simplistic and the characters are so one-dimensional they might as well be straight out of a Popeye cartoon. I found the cinematic style rather uninteresting except for a few close-ups. Mostly it's the kind of thing that might have been impressive for its time, but seems a bit ho-hum nowadays.

This is a really, really funny movie.

D.W. Griffith's not a racist! That's what's so insane about this!

Griffith doing his blunt stuff and it's actually kind of good. I am a sucker for Lillian Gish, though, and the racist tendencies are kept at a minimum with the white men in ridiculous, villainous characterizations.

A great film text, but overly melodramatic and offensive to be a pleasurable viewing experience. Despite its place in film history it doesn't hold a candle to other Griffith films.

So ridiculously overrated. The style is really bland and the characters are ridiculous. Some of the title cards made me cringe cause they were so fucking stupid. However, their are some funny moments but very very few. The racism is a bit ridiculous too but sometimes hilarious - unintentionally.

This is the sort of melodrama that didn't age well. It doesn't have the same impact as the epic Intolerance.

112