Broken Blossoms

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Thomas V @TomVee Oct 11, 2026 Maudlin melodrama, but nicely performed by Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess (if one can set aside the distasteful yellowface casting - it was 1919 after all). This is a much simpler production by far than Intolerance or Birth, and it demands a lot less from the viewer. It has a certain sweetness and pathos in our Chinese shopkeeper that is more dramatically compelling than the heavyhanded preachiness of the film, although there's also a needlessly creepy quality to the character. Lastly, the preachy theme is a bit ironic coming from Griffith. See more Eric P @RT06161622 Jun 1, 2022 D. W. Griffith comes out with another thought-provoking motion picture called "Broken Blossoms". It tells the story of a Chinese immigrant (Richard Barthelmess) who meets an abused child (Lillian Gish) who form a bond in a world full of hatred. There are good qualities in the film like the cinematography, the infamous closet scene, and Lillian Gish's acting that was pretty well-done. However, there are some bad qualities as well especially for the uncultured and ignorant writing by D. W. Griffith. While Broken Blossoms is an okay film, it's still tolerable as it teaches us that hate will forever be in inevitable battle. See more Mar 23, 2022 Quite an impressive and intriguing story for the this movie was made. Some of the beautiful imagery still holds up well. See more Ethan S @RT80629691 Jan 31, 2021 While somewhat ham-fisted in its treatment of race by today's standards (particularly in the choice to cast non-Asians in explicitly Asian roles, though this was certainly not uncommon for the time), Broken Blossoms is still a remarkably nuanced, sad and watchable film. See more William L @RT77267842 Dec 27, 2020 Griffith certainly pushed boundaries in film from a technical perspective, but he gets a lot of his credit largely for doing simple things before anyone else, and Broken Blossoms is a perfect example. It's an unsurprising and conventional romantic melodrama with an unnecessarily long runtime given how little actually happens, albeit one that showcases a great deal more sensitivity to its characters and their ethnicities given the director's lasting reputation. The editing is crisp and well-executed, but the film doesn't push boundaries in terms of scale or paractical execution in the manner of Birth of a Nation's scope or Intolerance's grand setpieces, though the street scenes are pretty compelling for their time. (3/5) See more Nov 14, 2020 First of all it's a silent and therefore dated. You have to make allowance for this. Three actors on top form, the fragile, vulnerable Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess (the only film I have seen him in I think), and an early (well-built - what a body!) the great Donald Crisp for once playing against type, and very well indeed, the villainous abusive father to the young, fragile, delicate Lillian Gish, blossom-like indeed. Barthelmess produces a subtly warm performance as the equally delicate Chinese a near missionary trying to survive while delivering his message of Love and Understanding in a dirty soulless foreign land. This is a well told, well filmed D W Griffith production. A masterpiece. A moral tale about racial tolerance and its ugly opposite leading to a truly heart-breaking finish. A brilliant story, brilliantly acted by all three principals but truly it's Gish's film perhaps her finest moment. See more Read all reviews

Broken Blossoms

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