Gish's performance is the only thing that isn't dated or stale.

Griffith's use of the close-up, described by Andrew Sarris as "shifting characters from the republic of prose to the kingdom of poetry," and his eye for enhancing our emotional connection to the characters through their environment (the virginal Gish literally emerges from the pure driven snow), give the film a timelessness that mitigates the stuffy moralizing.

Very dated and very stuffy, even for its time. The chase scene in the storm is too long, and if the thing had been cut by about an hour it would have been much better overall. Still, not a bad movie.

#955

904

As a romance/social commentary it's pretty good, if a little odd and dated. The performances are strong and the story is pretty captivating. My main problem with the film is that it tries to do too much and hurts itself in the process by becoming too long. There must be 30 minutes of random, unfunny, comedy bits throughout the picture and quite a few other scenes drag, especially the ridiculously over-elaborate ending.

# 913

Not a shred of nuance, ambiguity, or depth. It's all right there in the open, a morality play based on sexual politics that are now severely outdated. Fucking long, too. Two and a half hours, much of which is taken up by dumb comedy bits involving secondary characters. Things pick up a little at the end, when Lillian Gish FINALLY speaks up for herself and there's an exciting little bit of business. But it didn't really make up for the rest of it, which I found pretty dull.

A masterpiece; an outrageously hoary melodrama is transformed by screen artists Gish and Griffith.

924