Directed by D.W. Griffith
Starring Neil Hamilton, Carol Dempster, Lionel Barrymore
Produced by D.W. Griffith Productions
Nathan Holden, a farmer and courier, is enamored of two things: his involvement with the revolutionaries in the nascent Sons of Liberty movement opposing Great Britain in the 1700s, and his infatuation with Nancy Montague, a rich woman he encountered on one of his mail runs to Virginia. Unfortunately for Nathan, the Montagues are loyalists through and through, and the patriarch of the Montagues hates rebels.
Holden delivers a dispatch to the Virginia legislature and sees Nancy again. They share a moment before Justice Montague enflames the crowd in the legislature with his Tory views. Nancy leaves with her father and Holden returns to Lexington.
The Montagues travel to Lexington at the same time the British are preparing to attack. Holden has a flirtatious and comical interlude with Nancy at her balcony that is interrupted by her father. We get a lot of historical reenactments next Paul Revere's ride, the Battles of Concord and Lexington and the Battle of Bunker Hill. During this, Holden accidentally shoots Justice Montague and Nancy's brother Charles sides with the rebels and is killed at Bunker Hill.
Lurking in the background of these events is Captain Walter Butler, a captain in the British army who works with the Indians to brutally torture and murder the revolutionaries. Butler has designs on crushing the rebellion and installing himself as the new emperor of America. He also wants Nancy to become his queen. Will Holden and the revolutionaries succeed in repelling Butler and his men?
In watching films, there are a lot of variables affecting me in different ways, but I basically have two levels of evaluation: is it entertaining and does it make me think? A movie can be massively entertaining so I overlook its flaws. Or a film can be so well-constructed, I find myself lost in the structure, ignoring how dull the actual plot may be.
This movie did not entertain me and it did not make me think.
The obvious point of comparison for America is Griffith's earlier work The Birth of a Nation. Here, Griffith is using the exact same film techniques and structural elements that served him well in his repugnant masterpiece, but that's exactly the problem. It's been nine years and there's no more tools in his tool box.
Beyond that, this is a far sloppier film. The first half is charitably a mess. Holden is embroiled in the events of the American Revolution, but almost as though he is Forrest Gump being inserted at the periphery of the frame. He walks into a room and there's Sam Adams and John Hancock. Why? Because we get to name-drop some people you may have heard of. There are other scenes like Paul Revere's ride that are thrilling, but entirely disconnected from the main plot. And then there are moments where we cut to historic moments for their own sake. We see the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Again, why? Because we've all heard of that. It has nothing to do with the characters and none of them even react to it anyway.
The second half plays more to Griffith's strengths and becomes a tale of a man trying to save the woman he loves and prove himself to her father. Of course, Justice Montague will see the error of his ways (kind of hard not to when Captain Butler kills your brother for no good reason). Of course Nathan and Nancy will get together (despite some of the Romeo and Juliet cues). Griffith does some fine work in battle and chase sequences here, but none of it seems as inspired or passionate as essentially identical scenes in The Birth of a Nation.
The actors here are just okay with the exception of Lionel Barrymore. His Captain Butler is over-the-top evil, which would normally bother me. In the context of America though it works because he is the only character of any interest on the screen. He has some dimension and always has more going on behind his eyes, which is an under-appreciated aspect of acting in the silent era.
There are moments that work. Paul Revere's ride is a great short film that had no business being in the movie. The moment where Nancy presents her dead brother to his father, but hides his rebel sympathies is moving. And the final chase and rescue all work.
Unfortunately, Griffith appears to have lost his mojo here in America. He goes back to a well he's visited several times to find it bone dry. I am still interested in what else he has up his sleeve, but a lot of other directors are starting to lap him.
** out of *****
Note: During Paul Revere's ride, Revere rides his horse up a small set of stairs. The horse then turns to leave and falls, actor and all. Guess the budget only called for one take?
Note 2: Neil Hamilton who plays Nathan is probably (definitely?) better known to modern audiences as Commissioner Gordon in the campy Batman television series.
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