With motion pictures having its share of windy film titles throughout the years, ranging from SOMETHING IN THE WIND (Universal, 1947), WRITTEN IN THE WIND (Universal, 1956), INHERIT THE WIND (United Artists, 1960), and the most famous wind title of all, GONE WITH THE WIND (Selznick, 1939), one of the last great silent movies with artistic style and motion becomes simply called THE WIND (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1928). Directed by Victor Seastrom, who earlier directed its leading players of Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson in THE SCARLET LETTER (MGM, 1926), re-teams these two here for another classic melodrama where the wind/or cyclone take precedence through parts of the story "of a woman who gave into the domain of the winds."Plot summary: Letty Mason (Lillian Gish) is a young girl from Virginia train-bound through the western prairie to stay with her cousin and family at his ranch in Sweet Water. While fearing the endless sounds of wind as seen through the train window, Letty soon makes the acquaintance of Wit Roddy (Montagu Love), a rugged fellow passenger and cattle trader who takes an interest in her. Once at her destination outside the train station, Letty is met by Ligh Hightower (Lars Hanson) and his friend, Sourdough (William Orlmond), nearest neighbors of her cousin (15 miles away) who have come to take her to the ranch by coach. While Letty gets a warm reception from her cousin, Beverly (Edward Earle), and meeting with his three children (Leon Ramon, Carmencita Johnson and Billy Kent Schaefer), she fails to get the same welcome from his bitter wife, Cora (Dorothy Cumming). During a social gathering, Letty meets with Wirt Roddy once more, who offers his hand of marriage. Because of her closeness towards her husband, the jealous Cora forces Letty to leave her ranch and get herself married. Accepting Wirt's proposal, she discovers through him that he's already married and only wants Letty as his mistress. With nowhere else to go, she chooses the marriage proposal of Ligh instead. Their wedding night is anything but pleasant, considering how both bride and groom are heavily nervous about being alone together. After Letty rejects Ligh's forced intentions, Ligh realizes Letty's hate towards him and decides to earn enough money to send her back home to Virginia. After returning home from working on the prairie, Ligh brings home an injured stranger who happens to be Wirt. Being left alone with him while her husband is out working, Letty soon finds her biggest fear is not so much the endless sounds of the wind, but the very presence of the man who's still obsessed by her.Lillian Gish has come a long way since her days under famed movie director, D.W. Griffith, that began in 1912. After leaving Griffith by 1921, he ventured over to Metro by 1923. During her MGM years, her acting style not only improved, but Gish herself matured greatly as a serious actress. In a plot that echoes her earlier success of Griffith's WAY DOWN EAST (1920), where Gish braved the forceful blizzard winds, this time she goes through extremes of forceful winds of sand, with realistic insane moments where she observes the every movement inside her cabin, and unable to move herself forward through the wind while outside making her escape. Because this is a silent movie, Swedish actor Lars Hanson gets away playing an American prairie man. Most scenes are nearly stolen by the villainous and sometimes scary performance by Montagu Love. Dorothy Cumming as the unfriendly wife also brings chills up and down one's spine in the similar manner of other actress of the time, Gladys Brockwell. William Orlamond, who sometimes resembles that of Lucien Littlefield, is around for some comedy relief as the middle- aged farmer. According to sources, THE WIND had little appeal to movie audiences back in 1928. THE WIND has fortunately aged well and stood the test of time, especially when it surfaced decades after its theatrical release. THE WIND did became a curiosity for many when the climatic windstorm segment involving Gish and Love was clipped into a segment of an 13- week, well-informed history of silent movies documentary "Hollywood" (1980) under the narration of James Mason. Availability to home video with Thames Orchestral Score conducted by Carl Davis in place of original 1928 soundtrack and sound effects went into release by 1988, with five minute introduction by Lillian Gish herself. THE WIND was soon followed by world television premiere on Turner Network Television (TNT) August 26, 1990, followed by another broadcast Christmas Eve (December 24, 1990) as part of its "Silent Night" silent movie festival. In later years THE WIND (at 77 minutes) enjoyed frequent broadcasts on Turner Classic Movies, where, through its revivals, continues to win the appreciation it lacked way back in 1928. (****)

A young, refined Virginian comes to Texas to live with her cousin, but when his wife takes a strong dislike to her, she is forced to marry a man she does not love and is driven half-mad by both the howling plains winds - and a devious visitor.This incredible film of terrible beauty is a silent masterpiece and can stand equal to any movie of the 1920's. All the elements - story, direction, acting, cinematography, and effects come together to create this amazing work of art.Lillian Gish is outstanding as the frail innocent in a brutal and isolated land, but the real surprise is how excellent the supporting cast is as well. Lars Hanson as her husband is a revelation. He goes from clumsy youth to heartbroken spouse to understanding mate through the course of the film. Montagu Love, Dorothy Cumming and Edward Earle are also terrific and William Orlamond provides humor as a jilted suitor.The stunning photography and marvelous effects make the viewer almost feel as if he too is dealing day-to-day with the incessant winds of the plains. There are many haunting images in the picture, none more so than the nightmarish scene when the howling wind blows the sand away, revealing Roddy's (Love's) dead body.One can see how this film could have influenced such artists as Edna Ferber in creating her novel, "Giant" and even Sergio Leone, who also named his isolated ranch "Sweetwater" in his marvelous "Once Upon a Time in the West." In fact, the triangle at the beginning of the film between Letty (Gish), Beverly (Earle) and Cora (Cumming) resembles the triangle between Blanch, Stanley and Stella in Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire." When it comes to Silent films, only Chaplin's "City Lights" and Murnau's "Sunrise" have been so compelling that I couldn't tear my eyes from the screen, but now I can add this underrated, unforgettable masterwork.

Most Victor Sjostrom films follow the same idea - a perfectly likable lead character is mercilessly sent down the drainpipe - but the changing of the setting, and the changing of the character, and the changing of the drainpipe, sees each of his films capture a different mood, and bring out different ideas along the way. 'The Wind' is possibly his most acclaimed work, yet my least favorite so far.Set in desert USA, after being kicked out by her hosts, a penniless Lillian Gish, for the simple need of shelter and money, is forced to marry a local oaf, where, as you might guess, things do not go well for her. In this environment wind is ceaseless, blowing a gale from first to last, sending dust everywhere. When doors open dust blows in. Hair and clothes are constantly wafting about, and if you wish to play a drinking game while watching this film (anyone?), have a shot every time someone brushes dirt from their clothes, and see if you can still stand by the end of it. This wind is not an incredible force of nature however, it is an incredible force of filmmaking, as the goal is not to capture a particular environment in a particular part of the world, but to use it as a metaphor. The meaning is open to interpretation, but title cards at the beginning, as well as the general way things unfold, show to me that the wind is a representation of man - an ever present battering force, relentless, unforgiving and unclean, which the women are forever sheltering indoors from, and forever having to clean from the pots and pans, and forever having to sweep from the floors. You won't be surprised to learn then that the idea for this film was a woman's - Lillian Gish's - and while it may effectively communicate how she feels, it is very much a one eyed view. All the men are painted as fools, and the only time the film seeks to find virtue in them is the finale, where Gish finally seems to realise her husband has done a lot of good by her, and chooses to embrace him. Tellingly though, this ending was not in the original script, and was only tacked on by the studios who wanted a happy ending. If Gish had her way, the character would have eventually walked out into the windy desert to die. As if to say, in a world dominated by men, women can have no success. Instead, she proclaims, 'I no longer fear the wind!' Yes, a title card actually says that.If the film paints men crudely though, it doesn't paint women in a much nicer light. The only female character of note besides Lillian Gish is portrayed as nothing but a jealous wife, who upon seeing her husband do little more than welcome Gish with hugs and conversation, evicts their attractive female friend, which is actually the very action that lands her in all the tragedy. One might assume the film is attempting to tell us that husbands cannot be trusted and her actions justified, but instead, what we learn is that this particular woman's jealousy will have dire consequences. The lack of subtlety in all of this really undermines the tension, for it feels more like an essay than a story. It was only by the end of the film - with the body in the desert sand - that I realized the 'The Wind' is a kind of precursor to Hitchcockian suspense - which shows the problem - it was a suspense film without the suspense. The question became not what will happen next, only how?To be fair, many women in times gone by, and still in places today, have been helpless to change their circumstances due to the political limitations placed on them by men, and as such have suffered without option for escape - but no title cards, nor any of the images, detail anything political here - which mkaes this a film about gender in general, as opposed to politics specifically - which is why I think it makes such a poor argument.The film is not without virtue however. In one excellent scene, Gish's new husband, wishing to spend time with his new wife, enters her room, at which point she heartbreakingly rejects him, revealing she married not for love. It is the best scene in the film not because it is the only one painting the male as a victim, but because it is the only one of complexity - where the film is not finger pointing, or rather, where the finger could be pointed in multiple directions - where the culprit seems to be the difficulties of life, as opposed to a whole gender. The film is also well paced, Lillian Gish, despite my quarrels with the story, gives an excellent performance, the not so subtle message could potentially give some guys who treat women poorly a thought to change their ways, and the film, with its incessant wind and dirt, does manage to capture a unique and memorable mood, which is very effective for the purpose.

I have no idea how this film bombed at the box office, because it was incredible to watch. Lars Hanson and Lillian Gish's acting steal the movie, but I found myself on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next all the way from the first scene to the last. That is what a movie is all about- making the viewer anticipate on what will happen next not just sit there and correctly guess scene after scene. I will say that I saw this film at the 2009 San Francisco Silent Film Festival with an AMAZING live wurlitzer-which added an extra element to the film that made it an amazing performance. What breaks and makes a silent film (usually but not always) is defiantly the score of the film, and i'm quite sure that Lillian Gish would have loved the live music!