D.W. Griffith's lengthy silent melodrama about a naive young woman from the country who is taken advantage of by a cad. Later she finds love with a nice, sweet boy but her past comes back to haunt her. Never one to shy away from expressing his personal beliefs in his films, Griffith uses this simple story to sermonize about the moral character of men (basically they're all either doe-eyed innocents or total bastards) while also finding time to criticize the idle rich and prop up women as madonna figures. The opening title cards inform us men were never meant to be monogamous but we should try to be because Jesus said so...or something like that. Show that to your grandma's church group.

Star Lillian Gish is terrific at expressing emotions with her face and body. Few actresses, silent era or since, have been able to convey so much without words. Then we have her performance in the climax. Watching Gish fling herself about in the ice and snow, knowing it caused permanent physical damage to her hand...well it's a disturbingly impressive dedication to one's craft. She really is one of the all-time greats. Babyfaced Richard Barthelmess and the rest of the cast are also good.

On the negative side it is slow-going, particularly in the first half, with a lot of drawing room stuff and side visits through the local corn. As the film goes along, it becomes darker and more interesting, culminating in the justifiably famous snow storm finale with special effects provided by Mother Nature. Definitely worth a look for anyone who wants to see the best of the silent era, but I would advise against starting here. This is the type of film you need to be used to the silent movie pros & cons before attempting to watch it. That first hour or so is likely to drive away impatient viewers.

The reason I say that WAY DOWN EAST is a very good film for 1920 is that even by the mid-1920s, the style film this is would probably have seemed a bit old fashioned. So, compared to late silents it's not a great movie by any stretch but it is a decent movie nonetheless and better than most films of the day. So why is it old fashioned? Well, like the characters in many of the earlier D.W. Griffith films, the peopleof in the movie often seem very one-dimensional--like a 19th century morality play. For example, Lillian Gish plays a wonderful virginal sort, there is the town tattletale, the judgmental man, the cad and the professor--all stereotypes instead of real people. But despite all this, it still is a very good film.

WAY DOWN EAST begins with a poor cousin (Lillian Gish) going to the big city to spend time with her rich relatives. At this home, she is spotted by a total cad (Lowell Sherman) and he eventually asks her to marry him. However, the marriage is fake--and Gish has no idea it's not legal. After getting her pregnant, Sherman runs away--leaving her to have the baby on her own. Soon the baby dies and Gish is forced to go look for work in another town. There she gets work as a maid and becomes a beloved member of the family--that is, until word gets to the townsfolk that Gish is "that kind of woman"! This leads to an amazingly climactic scene on the ice (reminscent of the video game "Frogger") that you just have to see to believe and it's one of the best scenes Griffith ever filmed---very tense and amazing even when seen almost 90 years later.

What's to like about the film? Well, the biggest star of the movie are the special effects and camera work. As mentioned above, the ice scene is simply amazing, though the snow storm is also very realistic and well done. Also, there were some very lovely camera shots--such as the scene by the lake. All these made this a first-class project.

Overall, this is an important film but one that I would recommend mostly to people who already love silents. They will enjoy it considerably. However, for people not accustomed to and appreciative of the silents, it's probably one to hold off on--as you may be too quick to dismiss it because of the preachy plot and one-dimensional characters. For 1920, it was quite the accomplishment.

While DW Griffith may not a massive personal favourite of mine, he was a very important figure in the silent film period and one of the most innovative on a technical level. Have a lot more of his to see but most of what has been said was very good to masterpiece, only the frustratingly uneven 'The Birth of a Nation' disappointed (a brilliant first half completely undone by the second). Cannot rave about one of silent film's greatest actresses Lillian Gish enough either.

1920's 'Way Down East', re-watching it to see whether my initial extremely high opinion of it had held up, is not one of his best. Do prefer 'Orphans of the Storm' and particularly 'Intolerance' as far as his feature films go. 'Way Down East' is still a very good film though, on par with 'Broken Blossoms', and my high opinion has on the most part has been left unchanged. It was one of his most expensive but also one of his most financially successful films, and it is to me one of his most emotionally powerful (this is coming from a director who was no stranger to emotional power in his films).

Did think that 'Way Down East' tended to drag in the first act, with some overlong padding. The title cards can be on the ham-handed side.

The slapstick humour didn't work for me, it isn't particularly funny and felt strained, didn't see the need for it either.

Otherwise, 'Way Down East' is very good. Visually it looks pretty miraculous, the expense definitely shows as does the ambition. The photography is just stunning to look at, especially in the climax, and the special effects are ahead of the time in spectacle and scale. The climax is still incredibly powerful and one that one will not forgt for a long time afterwards.

Furthermore, Gish gives one of her, most eloquent and most emotionally devastating performaces in a vulnerable role. Richard Barthelmess is sympathetic and his chemistry with Gish is just as tender, as good as it was in 'Broken Blossoms'. And they had lovely chemistry in that and were both very good. Lowell Sherman manages to achieve a seemingly difficult feat at giving a caddish character a subtle and at times sympathetic side, while still with some formidable moments too, Grifith's direction is typically masterly, especially in the climax, he just kept growing and growing with each film. The film's score is haunting too.

In summary, very good if not quite one of Griffith's best. 8/10