Orphans of the Storm – Gish Does It Again

I certainly hope that D.W. Griffith understood just how much he owed thanks to Lillian Gish in making his career what it is. Surely, he’s a director of talent – putting aside his personal opinions. He’s a pioneer of cinema and his technique has served as the foundation of filmmaking for the last century. But what makes his films so lasting, moving, and relatable is the emotional core of his last two films (and certainly many parts of Birth of a Nation as well) – Lillian Gish. In his 1921 film, Orphans of the Storm, Lillian is paired with her real-life sister, Dorothy Gish. In the film, the two play fictional sisters as Lillian (as Henriette, the daughter of a poor family) and Dorothy (Louise, the blind daughter of a rich family who had left her on the doorsteps of a church as a baby and was taken by the father of the poor family who was about to do the same) attempt to make their way to the center of France’s turmoil on the eve of the French Revolution in order to cure Louise’s blindness. Of course, as often turns out in Griffith’s films, things do not go their way and in fact go from worse to worse to devastatingly worse.

Despite being far ahead of his time in terms of filmmaking expertise, Griffith was often one to muse on the days long past. Someone once said – and I may have mentioned this in my review for Way Down East as well – that where DeMille focused on the changing times among everyday people, Griffith yearned for the olden days and often hated the way times changed. With Orphans of the Storm, his opinion still has not wavered. In fact, he goes far, far into the past – back to the days of revolution in France – to tell of a story of changing times (down with spoiled monarchs, up with the revolutionists!). The one aspect that Griffith manages to surprise with is how he actually shows both as equally right and wrong, but the entire time Henriette and Louise are forced into undesirable situations on both ends as a result of merely being bystanders.

Perhaps it’s this continuing idea of intolerance that Griffith wants to state for the world. As he attempted half a decade before with a film literally called Intolerance, it seems once wasn’t enough to get his point across and with each new film he has attempted to exploit the wrongdoings of the world. What sets Orphans of the Storm apart, however, is it shows the damage done to mere bystanders. No longer is it one side against another, we now see a third side entirely impartial yet wholly affected regardless.

Of course, we as an audience would have a difficult time truly caring about this third side if not for the remarkably moving performances of both of the Gish sisters (who are pictured left). Though I vastly prefer Lillian Gish here (the sister on the right in that picture), mainly because the film is practically hers and she gets many more key scenes than Dorothy, both still put on a great display of the effects of inequality and the love formed from sisterhood – whether by blood or not. The one quality of Lillian Gish’s work that has always stuck with me is her ability to both subtly and melodramatically play key emotional scenes. Her hands wave, her body crumbles, her voice gets (albeit inaudibly, because, you know, silent films) loud, but all the while her eyes do something entirely unique. She has very large eyes, which makes them the focal point of her close-ups (and perhaps Griffith understood that which is why he often allowed her to do her thing during close-ups); however, her eyes are often a character within itself, telling an entirely new story than what her words might say. To me, that’s the concept of strong acting – when you believe the emotions so wholeheartedly that you can look into their eyes and see it. And Gish certainly does that.

As for the film itself, despite being a bit overly long – as is Griffith’s one fault – very little of it is used to tell unnecessary subplots the way Way Down East did. Each character has a purpose to the story, however small that may be, and each scene is necessary for the overall arc of the story. This may sound like a criticism as well, but I assure you it’s not, the last twenty minutes felt like it went on for hours simply because of the amount of tension built up. Without giving anything away, it’s a climax easily as breathtaking and heart-pounding as the icy climax of Way Down East yet without any need for fancy special effects.

I can certainly say that Griffith has finally shown his merits as a filmmaker in my eyes. It’s still impossible to forgive him for the ridiculous amount of bigotry in his foremost film, The Birth of a Nation, but his mastery on display in both of these last two films (Way Down East and Orphans of the Storm) and his elements of deconstructing intolerance across space and time has certainly made up for its lack thereof in Birth. Though this film was apparently the last truly great film in Griffith’s filmography, chronologically speaking, it’s certainly a strong one. In fact, it may even just be his best one. It’s the one with the least amount of mess, it perfectly puts all the techniques and elements he’s been working toward for nearly a decade into perfect dramatic and romantic use, and of course is sealed with a kiss by the always fantastic Lillian Gish. Perhaps his greatest downfall was his love for the past and rarely looking forward, but as his films are now staples of cinematic history, perhaps he can rest easy in his grave knowing he now lives where he always wanted.


8/10