In 1915, director D.W Griffith made a major impact in Hollywood and became a main event player after the release of the 3 hour masterpiece; Birth Of A Nation. He followed that up and further solidified himself as one of the best directors in the world with 1916’s Intolerance which also received critical acclaim. After becoming known for his huge-budget epics, it must’ve been quite a surprise when, in 1919, he swapped the mega budgets, huge sets and casts of hundreds in favour of small, intimate sets and a cast of only a few with the release of Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl.

In my opinion, Broken Blossoms is one of Griffith’s most interesting pieces of work. I think the main reason is that there is such a vast difference between this and what we’re used to seeing from him. As I’ve previously mentioned, due to Birth Of A Nation and Intolerance, Griffith was known for his big budget epics and with the release of Broken Blossoms in 1919, things changed. It seemed more about the acting this time around instead of focusing on sheer scale and size in his other famous films and that can only be a good thing.

Speaking of acting, if you wanted women for a lead female role where the acting was important, there was only one lady you could turn to for guaranteed results and that was Lillian Gish and boy, did she do a fantastic job in this one! In fact… No. The word fantastic doesn’t do Gish’s performance justice. Lillian Gish gave one of the most outstanding performances that I’ve ever seen. It was like the role was made for her! I think one of the reasons I liked her performance that much was because of her smile. THE smile. After being treated horribly by her father constantly, he gets fed up of seeing her looking miserable and forces her to smile for him. Being so unhappy, she has to physically use her fingers to push her mouth up to make herself smile. That smile is charming enough but after meeting the loving, caring chinaman who takes her in, treats her nice and looks after her after years of mental exhaustion, we eventually get to see her smile willingly which makes for an absolutely fantastic moment in the film. It’s the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen and made me feel real emotion which is rare for me while watching movies. I’ve only seen a couple of Lillian Gish movies in my year or so of watching silent movies on a semi-regular basis but watching her smile was one of the most touching moments I’ve ever seen in a film and had cemented her as one of my favourite silent actresses of all time.

So here’s the low-down… Lucy has been abused and mistreated for years by her father Battling Burrows, a prizefighting boxer. After he takes things too far one day, Lucy leaves her home and is taken in and looked after by a Chinaman, who, even though it’s their first time meeting each other, falls madly in love with her. He cares for her in her mentally and physically exhausted state as the two form quite the special bond. After her fathers hears about this relationship, he is outraged and goes to take his daughter back and teach The Yellow Man a lesson.

This was my first time seeing Richard Barthelmess in a film and I have to say, I thought he was absolutely outstanding in the role of The Yellow Man. His performance was fantastic at times and he really got me involved in the story and made me genuinely care for his character. One of the main reasons I was so involved in the storyline was because of him. Although not quite as good as Lillian in my opinion, his acting was second to none and couldn’t have done a better job if he tried.

The version I saw was the KINO tinted version and it looked absolutely fantastic for a film that’s 84 years old. The quality was great, the soundtrack was brilliant and although I’m not really a fan of tinted silent films, this was definitely an exception. KINO are known for their outstanding prints and this was no different. If you buy this film, make sure it’s the KINO version that you buy!

I can honestly say, without a shadow of a doubt, that Broken Blossoms is one of my favourite films of all time. Everything about it was pretty much perfect and I think one of the main reasons for that was Lillian Gish’s performance. Gish made this film. She was the star and the reason it was so fantastic was because of her. Broken Blossoms is a phenomenal piece of filmmaking and after watching it for the first time at the beginning of August, I can safely say that it’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen. An absolute masterpiece.

Rating: 10/10