Orphans of the Storm (1921)

 D.W. Griffith's "Orphans of the Storm"

After the far more intimate affairs with films like "Broken Blossoms," "True Heart Susie," and "Way Down East," D.W. Griffith decided to go back to the more large-scale pieces like "The Birth of a Nation" and "Intolerance." He adapted the 1874 French play, "Les Deux Orphelines" into a his feature film "Orphans of the Storm" in 1921. The film depicts the events of the French Revolution in 1789. What Griffith also was able to do was depict a period piece that had suggestive warnings about the contemporary time he was living in. His intertwining of ficiton and non-fiction that commented on contemporary times was done before with his commerical juggernaut, "The Birth of a Nation." 

The film stars Gish sisters Lillian and Dorothy as two sisters who try and navigate the French Revolution. Dorothy's character, Louise, is blind. Henriette, Lillian's character, takes her to Paris to find a cure. While there, a lustful aristocrat, de Praille, meets the two outside Paris after his carriage runs over the child of a peasant father, Forget-Not. Taken by Henriette's beauty, he orders his men to abduct her and brings her to his nightly party. Louise, left all alone, gets abducted by Mother Frochard, who keeps her as a prisoner. Needing to get back to her sister, Henriette is aided by a noble aristocrat named Chevalier, who duels his way out of the party in order for them to escape. Unable to find her, Henriette rents a room. There, she shelters a man named Danton, who was attacked by Royalists for giving public speeches. After the revolution unfolds, disorder and rioting carry out through the streets. Aristocrats are taken in and condemned to death via guillotine. Henriette is sentenced to execution until Danton is able to plea to the commoners to re-evalute their morals. Once she is saved, she is reunited with her sister.

"Orphans of the Storm" observes class conflicts during the 18th century. However, the intentions behind the film were to heed warnings about contemporary class conflicts. One of the biggest inspirations behind the film was the Russian Bolshevik revolution in 1917. In the name of communism, the Bolsheviks revolutionized and overthrew the Russian aristocracy. Griffith did not want Bolshevism infecting the minds of American citizens, as he did not want the current American democracy overthrown. To preface the film, Griffith added in the opening title card, "After the King's Government falls they suffer with the rest of the people as much through the new Governement, established by the pussy-footing Robespierre through Anarchy and Bolshevism." Griffith believed that a revolution would cause a collapse of law and order, which he demonstrates in the film. However, Griffith does make a point to showcase the fault of the arstocratic party, demonstrating how much they are to blame in their own demise. He does this by showing them as heartless indulgers. They appear heartless like in the scene in which de Praille's carriage runs over a child. De Paraille's does not seem to care about the child and is only concerned about the horses. Other instances of heartlessness occur when aristocrats demean the peasant people. Griffith portrays them as indulgent by showcasing the lavish parties they throw, in which everyone is getting drunk, eating and wasting food, and having orgies. The contrast between the carless indulgences of the aristocrats and the poor, hungry peasants is obvious. With this, Griffith allows the viewer to feel akin to the peasant people, frustrated by the inequality. However, Griffith makes a point to assert aristocratic characters who do not have the same moral fallouts. For example, Chevalier not only helps Henriette escape, but actively tries to help downtrodden. Only when chaos ensues does the viewer begin to flip their perspective. Once the newly established government is in place, executions and lawlessness ensue. With this, Griffith demonstrates how, even if equality is out of reach, a total overthrow of the government will only lead to disorder and violence. This sentiment can be reached through the character of Henriette, who becomes trapped by the angry mob's wrath. As we have identified with her throughout the entire film, our gung-ho desires for revolution have now backfire on us, as we are now the one's at the lawless lack of mercy from the angry revolters. Griffith is able to demonstrate his anxieties about the Bolshevik situation through the enacting of the French Revolution.

One of the most important filmmaking elements of this film is the way in which Griffith creates tension. In the climax of the film, Henriette is being brought to the guillotine to be sentanced to death, something the viewer is already anxious about. Throughout, Griffith cross cuts between the slow push foward of her journey and of those who are trying to intervene to save her life. As she goes from prison, to carriage, to being thrown water at by the angry mob, to the steps of the guillotine, to waiting her turn, to being placed in position, and awaiting the final blow, Griffith intercuts to scenes of Danton trying to rally the courts to pardon her, to people trying to intervene, to Danton's horses racing to get there in time. The effect of creates a "will they save her in time?" notion. This suspence and anticipation only increases the longer the scenes are drawn out. The longer we have to wait for the moment, the greater and greater our anxieties become. The irony in all this is that the Bolsheviks that Griffith was criticizing are the ones who utilized his techniques to the greatest effect. Soviet directors like Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin studied Griffith's films and understood the utlitity in his cross cutting techniques used to build tension. Not only this, they studied how Griffith was able to comment on the politics of his time, while clearly displaying a clear good vs. evil, despite the complexities of persepctive. Griffith was able to use choas and clear moral corruption, as well as sophisticated editing and framing, to convey a consise moral superiority between two parties. Despite "Orphans of the Storm" being an oblique criticism of the Bolshevik revolution, the Bolsheviks drew the biggest inspiration from Griffith's tactful and pointed film syntax. 

Despite the film's massive million dollar budget and despite Griffith's reputation, the film was a commercial failure. Audiences had grown too accostomed to Griffith's visual style. Despite the fact that this visual language created the format from which all cinema derives, these techniques quickly became old hat and boring. "Way Down East," a year earlier, was Griffith's last commercial success. However, it can be said that it was "Orphans of the Storm" was his last critical success. The expensive production, the innovative techniques for building tension, and Griffith's use of historical events to comment on contemporary issues all lead to an explosive film, showcasing Griffith's mastery over the film language.