|
|
|
|
 |
America
|
Director:
|
|
D. W. Griffith |
|
Starring:
|
|
Lionel Barrymore |
|
Country:
|
|
|
|
Genre:
|
|
|
|
Type:
|
|
Tinted B&W
|
|
Year:
|
|
1924
|
|
Language:
|
|
English intertitles
|
|
Length:
|
|
100 mins.
|
|
Available Media:
|
|
16mm, VHS, Other
|
|
|
|
|
| Description |
Among the distinguishing talents of filmmaking pioneer D. W. Griffith was his gift for endowing history with a sense of drama and immediacy, evidenced in his vibrant renditions of the Civil War (The Birth of a Nation), the French Revolution (Orphans of the Storm) and the Fall of Babylon (Intolerance). In his rarely seen 1924 film America, Griffith focused his astute cinematic eye and proficiency at melodrama on a rousing, grand-scale re-creation of the war for independence.
Torn between his revolutionary political beliefs and his love for the daughter of a Virginia Tory (Carol Dempster), Nathan Holden (Neil Hamilton) struggles with his fellow patriots for independence. But at the crossroads of this path to freedom stands Captain Walter Butler (Lionel Barrymore). A murderous redcoat, Butler ravages the fledgling colonies with a band of barbaric Mohawks, whose crude characterization clearly parallels Griffith's treatment of the liberated slaves of The Birth of a Nation. |
 back to top |
|
|
