Amazon.com Essential Video
In what may have been his most brilliant surprise, D.W. Griffith transformed an archaic melodrama about a wronged woman into a transcendent love story of redemption. Lillian Gish plays an innocent New Englander seduced by an urbane charmer (Lowell Sherman), who arranges a mock marriage and then abandons her when she's pregnant. When the baby dies from illness, Gish leaves the city and changes her identity. She finds herself reborn in the pastoral splendor of a farming community, catching the adoring eye of a young idealist (Richard Barthelmess), only to have the past come back to haunt her. Griffith made two kinds of films: spectacles and love stories. It's the tremulous love stories such as
Way Down East that have endured the best. This 1920 film is a triumph of humanity over cruelty, a work that brilliantly conveys emotion through environment. The famous climax on the floating river of ice is still amazing--especially since it uses no special effects.
--Bill Desowitz
Video Details
D.W. Griffith's 1920 masterpiece has been restored to it's original full length with color tinting. Based on a popular 19th century play, "Way Down East" is a poignant melodrama about a poor country girl who is tricked into a fake marriage and has an illegitimate child who dies. After starting a new life, her past is exposed and she is evicted into a raging blizzard, pursued by the young man who secretly loves her.
