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.

Sjöström's "Körkarlen" (1921) is a masterful film, but this! Something remarkable died with the advent of sound in film, I'm sure, where technical progression thwarted artistic expression (is something similar happening with 3D?). Not that sound films are from the devil but film would have surely developed to an unexpectedly different direction had history turned out differently. Case in point: Murnau's last films, Lang's "Die Nibelungen" (1924), Gance's "Napoléon" (1927), Epstein's "Coeur fidèle"(1923), etc.; these films reached an apex visually, not only in the images they show but how they show them. "The Wind" most certainly belongs to this group of wonderful, visceral films.Truly, this is so good it's hardly decipherable as an experience. What did I see? A storm, yes, full of so much violence and noise I didn't need any sound for it to assault my ears. A claustrophobic phantasmagoria, definitely, where each space is disorientedly encircled by the ominous, ever-present sand, engineered by the satanic wind that, as they say, will drive one mad.But then there's also so much human drama that the multifaceted diamond the film is continually reassembles itself as a domestic drama, where in other places it swirls and swooshes from action-packed material destruction to psychological, and vice-versa.Watching films is like a journey, a path through whichever place the viewer desires. For me it's a mountain path, perhaps by a stream, and while it's unnecessary it's also lots of fun to find double features for the marvellous jewels one happens to come by, like similar-looking pebbles upon which one prances across a stream amidst a forest-scene. Teshigahara's famous "Suna no onna" (1964) could be one, let alone for the central role sand plays in it, there also personified to a character."City Girl" (1930) even more, since there, too, we have a young girl who is not only mistaken to be a man-eater of sorts, but also thrown in the middle of the violent forces of nature that will shape her destiny.

A really scary movie. Count poor Letty's (Gish) frustrations after leaving the train. It's just one menacing disappointment after another, whether the two uncouth louts (Hanson & Orlamond), the muscular Cora, that dinner from heck, or the hellish wind that never lets up. Whatever else, this is a first-rate horror movie, much more effective than the splatter movies of today. Get a load of butcher Cora just standing next to the splayed steer carcass, knife in hand. If I were Letty, I wouldn't walk, I'd run back to Virginia. There are so many arresting images, thanks to director Seastrom (I believe)-- the empty horizon swept bare by the blow, the spectral stallion running wild with Letty's fears, and the clawing at the window. The wind and dust forever clawing. Never has a force of nature been transformed so effectively into an infernal presence. Poor Letty. Watch her features twist as the anguish grows. Forget the happy, unbelievable ending. That was a studio surrender no one in production agreed with—at least, according to a Gish. A truer ending was apparently filmed, but MGM brass buckled under the grimness. Too bad. This is the stuff of bad dreams, especially since it's wordless. I think I understand now what my friends from Kansas used to say—"It's just that old Devil Wind showing who's boss". Great movie.

OK first I would like to say that I am commenting on this movie after only seeing once it years ago on TCM. What made me think to comment was just this, I was watching a documentary the other day on Silent Film History and saw some clips from "The Wind". Now I never thought about what I am about to mention before, probably because the last time I saw "The Wind" I didn't own every Hitchcock DVD and box set there is as I do now (On Hitchcock: I both own and recommend Warner Bros 9dvd Signature Box, Universals 15dvd Masterpiece Collection Box, The New MGM/UA Premiere Collection Box and then to assemble the rest of his early films you can do it a few different ways also you have to buy To Catch A Thief and a few others as individual dvds).POSSIBLE SPOILERS...OK now what I want to ask is: Does "The Wind" contain Hitchcockian elements?? I haven't seen the film in some time and only recently have I seen clips. Also the time I did see the film it was already a few minutes into the story. Only one year after Hitchcock's "The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog" (1927), and some decades before the term "Hitchcockian" would come to be, I believe that The Wind does have Hitchcockian elements. As for these elements some may say that just because a film contains elements of great suspense or the use of an average(everyman/woman), innocent character being plunged into events that are almost unexpected if not definitely unwanted doesn't mean that this film is inspired by or can be coined as Hitchcockian. The term seems to be most widely used these days to describe certain films that seem to have been inspired by or that contain obvious elements of Hitchcock design such as the ever popular plot device "The MacGuffin"(or McGuffin if you prefer). While I am no film expert and mainly just a huge film collector/nut that happens to love classic cinema both silent and sound, I am interested in whether or not Victor Sjöström could have possibly seen one of Hitchcock's 6 or 7 films that had been released prior to "The Wind" in 1928.. Surely living in the UK he would have heard of Alfred Hitchcock at that time. While Sjöström was from Sweden and may have seen one or more of Hitchcock's films prior to filming "The Wind" I am sure that the Hitchcockian elements that I felt I saw in "The Wind" were just elements of another great director; Victor Sjöström.I guess being such a die hard Hitchcock fan I see elements of his genius in many other films, especially if they have any great moments of suspense such as the moment when Gish stares out that window (already maddened by the sand blowing and what had just occurred) only to see the horrible wind uncovering her most recent discarded item...The Wind is a Great film and I give it an easy 9/10!