The Wind (1928)

Director: Victor Sjöström (as Victor Seastrom)
Writers: Frances Marion (scenario), Dorothy Scarborough (from the novel by)
Stars: Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love

Letty moves to West Texas from the East and it seems that the wind always blows and the sand gets everywhere. While living with relatives, she finds that she is not welcomed by the wife. With no where to go, she marries a man who disgusts her. Her new home is a small shack with the wind and the sand constant companions. When it is necessary for most of the men to go out into the sand storm, one stays back to have his way with Letty and that costs both of them.

The outstanding atmosphere makes this classic melodrama especially memorable. The story and the acting would have made a pretty good movie by themselves, but it is "The Wind" itself that makes it something more. Not only is the constant presence of the wind a well-conceived figurative parallel to the events in the characters' lives, but making it work on the screen was also a remarkable technical achievement for its era.

Lillian Gish is deservedly praised for her role as Letty, a young woman from the east who travels to a strange and unforgiving region. This is the kind of role that Gish always seemed born to play. But Lars Hanson also does an excellent job in an even more difficult role. In order for the story to work, Hanson has to make his character fully sympathetic to the audience, while at the same time making it plausible that Gish's character does not care for him very much.

It's still very impressive the way that the powerful prairie winds are made such an indispensable part of the movie. It must have involved a great deal of work and sacrifice to achieve such realism without fancy technology. And it is masterful the way that the howling, never-ceasing winds are used to parallel the conflicts among the characters. This is one of the fine classics of the silent era that should not be missed.

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