The Wind

Lillian Gish's legendary career was nearly as lengthy as her life. Time and time again, she has shown audiences that she was truly one of the finest actresses who ever lived. A perfect example of her power and artistry is in "The Wind".

Miss Gish plays "Letty", a young girl from Virginia who moves to her cousin's house on the wild, open plains of Texas. The plot is very interesting and very fluid. Miss Gish is wonderful as usual (the sequence of events at the end of the movie is among the finest performances on film) but the real star of the movie is Swedish heartthrob Lars Hanson. A real delightful performance, with real charisma.

A must-see film that deserves more recognition.

Really awesome silent film about a young woman who finds herself at the mercy of people who use and abuse her. With no way to get home, stranded in the mojave desert, Lillian Gish has maybe her best role. The special affects are astounding. The ending is very poor, however. Lillian Gish herself talks about how they insisted a sad ending would ruin her career, even though her films all had sad endings in the past and she was a huge star! She herself, hated the ending they made. Just ignore it and think about how great the whole rest of the film is!

Peculiar, but brilliantly filmed silent classic starring Gish as a young woman who battles for her life as she lives in the windy Texas desert, and is torn between two men who want her. Special effects are quite breathtaking for its time and since it was filmed in the scorching Mojave Desert in California.

What struck me most about this film is how it achieved by purely visual means to evoke the threatening nature of the environment in which the female lead (Letty Mason, played by Lillian Gish) finds herself. The way the wind drives the sand and pushes against windows and doors and the very walls of the cabin makes it look and feel truly frightening. Lillian Gish is fantastic as an initially weak young woman who arrives in this environment as a total stranger, is hated by a woman on whom she depends and deceived by a man who (seemingly) offers to marry her, but who nevertheless finds inner strength in the end. 'The Wind' is a truly haunting film with an optimistic ending. Highly recommended!

If you want to know how powerful, lyrical and emotive silent movies could be in their last days, just see Murnau's "Sunrise" and this absolute masterpiece, "The Wind". In both you quickly forget the absence of sound and come to enjoy it. Without voices' distraction, you're able to full appreciate the beautiful direction and photographic work, as well as Lilian Gish's wonderful interpretation - she should have won the first Oscar for best actress on a tie with Janet Gaynor. 1927 could be the last year for silent movies yet it was the greatest one, so that one wonders along with current reviewers if talkies were not a regress rather than a progress, after all.