7. Broken Blossoms (1919)

This is the third film by D. W. Griffith on the 1001 list, and the first I have enjoyed. There are still some aspects of this movie that are cringe-worthy (its alternate title is "The Yellow Man and the Girl") but overall this film is more nuanced and sensitive than the others. Its themes are no less complex than Griffith's other two previous films on the list, but his staging is less ambitious here and that serves him well in getting his message across.

Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess) leaves his native China because he "dreams to spread the gentle message of Buddha to the Anglo-Saxon lands." His idealism fades as he is faced with the brutal reality of London's gritty inner-city. However, his mission is finally realized in his devotion to the "broken blossom" Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish), the beautiful but unwanted and abused daughter of boxer Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp).

After being beaten and discarded one evening by her raging father, Lucy finds sanctuary in Cheng's home, the beautiful and exotic room above his shop. As Cheng nurses Lucy back to health, the two form a bond as two unwanted outcasts of society. All goes astray for them when Lucy's father gets wind of his daughter's whereabouts and in a drunken rage drags her back to their home to punish her. Fearing for her life, Lucy locks herself inside a closet to escape her contemptuous father.

By the time Cheng arrives to rescue Lucy, whom he so innocently adores, it is too late. Lucy's lifeless body lies on her modest bed as Battling has a drink in the other room. As Cheng gazes at Lucy's youthful face which, in spite of the circumstances, beams with innocence and even the slightest hint of a smile, Battling enters the room to make his escape. The two stand for a long while, exchanging spiteful glances, until Battling lunges for Cheng with a hatchet, and Cheng retaliates by shooting Burrows repeatedly with his handgun. After returning to his home with Lucy's body, Cheng builds a shrine to Buddha and takes his own life with a knife to the stomach.

This film was made during a period of anti-Chinese fear called the Yellow Peril. But in contrast to Griffith's fear-mongering The Birth of a Nation and confused Intolerance, this film preaches a message of tolerance. Griffith adapted the plot from a popular book of the era, but changed the nature of the main character to make him much more sympathetic. I can almost forgive Griffith for calling Cheng Huan "yellow man" and "chinky" because of how sensitively he frames the character's personality.

This movie was successful and highly praised by both audiences and critics even though viewers were disturbed by the depictions of child abuse. The original backer was so furious over the sad ending--all the main characters die--that Griffith bought the film back from him. It ended up being the first film distributed by United Artists, a collective Griffith started with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin so they could release their own films and avoid dealing with the status quo studio system. 

I liked this movie a lot more than I expected and I'm very curious about the next film on the 1001 list, another Griffith classic.

Fun fact - the actor who played the abusive father in this film, Donald Crisp, was also a director during the silent era and learned much of his tradecraft from D.W. Griffith. Crisp would later star in one of my favorite movies of all time, How Green Was My Valley, and win an Oscar for best supporting actor.