Way Down East (1920)
by D.W. Griffith
List Price:
Our Price: $22.49
You Save: $2.46 (10%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $13.84 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Lillian Gish, Richard BarthelmessDirector: D.W. Griffith
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Silent
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 149 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-11-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: KINO INTERNATIONAL
Movie Reviews of Way Down East (1920)
Movie Review: Interesting...
Summary: 3 Stars
2.5 stars. I have no idea how I ended up watching this movie. Overall, the soundtrack was distracting that I literally ended up muting the movie and just reading the placards. It may it a little better. The storyline is an old standard but it's the movie dramatic ice floe scene that is what made this so memorable and squeezed out a 1/2 star from me. This is and feels longs--especially for a silent film. If you're just curious about this as a classic then check it out, if not let it float on by.
Summary of Way Down East (1920)
FROM THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART S 35mm RESTORATIOND.W. Griffith s penchant for Victorian melodrama reached its height of expression in WAY DOWN EAST. First performed in 1898, Lottie Blair Parker s play was one of the most successful stageworks ever written, a theatrical chestnut, heavy with sentiment, that cried out for the touch of the master. Griffith captured the appeal of Parker s original, while embossing it with devices borrowed from other popular melodramas, such as the climactic chase across an ice floe (inspired by stage adaptations of Uncle Tom s Cabin). Lillian Gish stars as a small-town girl who is seduced, impregnated, and cast aside by Lennox Sanderson, a wealthy playboy (Lowell Sherman). To escape the shame of having a fatherless child, Anna changes her name and starts a new life in a small farming community, where she meets David, an icon of male virtue and decency (Richard Barthelmess). Their delicate happiness is threatened when Lennox arrives in town, and word of Anna s unsavory past begins to spread.
- Mastered in HD from the Museum of Modern Art s 35mm restoration, with original color tints
- Score compiled from historic photoplay music, performed by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra (2.0 Stereo)
- Excerpts from Lottie Blair Parker s original play
- Photos of William Brady s 1903 stage version
- Film Clip: The ice floe sequence of the Edison Studio s production of Uncle Tom s Cabin.
- Image gallery, including the original souvenir program book
- Notes on the preparation of the music score
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
Art House & International DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in Art House & International DVD Video
Jesus of NazarethLION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2002-03-01; DVD
Best price: $13.49
Price in other shops:
The Ultimate GiftUltimate; Release date: 2007-08-21; DVD
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
Let The Right One InRelease date: 2009-03-10; DVD
Best price: $16.00
Price in other shops:
OnceTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-12-18; DVD
Best price: $8.39
Price in other shops:
Pride & PrejudiceUNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAIN.; Release date: 2006-02-28; DVD
Best price: $6.42
Price in other shops:
State of Play (BBC Miniseries)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-02-26; DVD
Best price: $20.99
Price in other shops:
Les Miserables: The 10th Anniversary Dream Cast in Concert at London's Royal Albert HallWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-02-19; DVD
Best price: $24.24
Price in other shops:
The InheritanceRelease date: 2004-12-07; DVD
Best price: $2.35
Price in other shops:
MilkUniversal; Release date: 2009-03-10; DVD
Best price: $9.89
Price in other shops:
Slumdog MillionaireTwentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2009-03-31; DVD
Best price: $10.40
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
The Jazz Singer (Three-Disc Deluxe Edition)WARNER HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2007-10-16; DVD
Best price: $22.00
Price in other shops:
Pinocchio (Two-Disc 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition)BUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2009-03-10; DVD
Best price: $10.98
Price in other shops:
Battleship Potemkin (The Ultimate Edition) (2pc) (Full B&W)Release date: 2007-10-23; DVD
Best price: $16.41
Price in other shops:
The General (The Ultimate 2-Disc Edition) (1926)Release date: 2008-11-11; DVD
Best price: $16.72
Price in other shops:
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Restored Authorized Edition)Release date: 2002-09-24; DVD
Best price: $9.53
Price in other shops:
Pre-Code Hollywood Collection (The Cheat / Merrily We Go to Hell / Hot Saturday / Torch Singer / Murder at the Vanities / Search for Beauty)UNI DIST CORP. (MCA); Release date: 2009-04-07; DVD
Best price: $36.64
Price in other shops:
Broken Blossoms (Deluxe Edition)Release date: 2002-12-10; DVD
Best price: $16.44
Price in other shops:
Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Volume Three (Other Men's Women / The Purchase Price / Frisco Jenny / Midnight Mary / Heroes for Sale / Wild Boys of the Road)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-03-24; DVD
Best price: $31.48
Price in other shops:
True Heart Susie & Hoodoo AnnImage Entertainment; Release date: 2007-08-28; DVD
Best price: $12.49
Price in other shops:
Orphans of the StormRelease date: 2003-06-10; DVD
Best price: $2.38
Price in other shops: