That was an excellent one.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

(Flash Review)Kicking off a romantic relationship as WWI erupts is certainly inconvenient. This scenario was done more convincingly than during the movie Pearl Harbor. ZING! In this film, the female lead and her love interest kick off the film as wartime events slowly move in and interfere. Her man is called into action throwing a wrench into their wedding plans. Will they ever marry? Will they both survive the war? There were many solid tense moments, which were probably very tense for the time period. Director Griffith doesn't shy away from highlighting the evils of war complimented by the honor of those who fought in the trenches and the honor many of the village locals have for their homeland. This film may have been Griffith's response to WWI as this came out as it was winding down. Overall, the film felt long despite being peppered with many early battle scenes with tanks, explosions, combat and tragedy. Another solid film for the Griffith resume.

Hearts of the World (1918) is among the least discussed of D.W. Griffith's films. There's a reason for that: it's a letdown after Intolerance (1916) and certainly not as entertaining as his more popular works. This is a propaganda picture through and through, and it has not weathered the years well.The plot is one melodramatic stock situation after another. Girl and boy promise to marry, but war intervenes. The Germans invade their village and do all sorts of Hun-ish villainy. Little kids cry over their mother's death bed. Lillian Gish is literally trapped in-between the thighs of a lascivious Prussian officer out to threaten her virginity. Americans drop in to save the day.The characters are almost all one-dimensional, but unlike Intolerance or Way Down East (1920) they are not made compelling by the actors. It's a shame, because everyone in this film was capable of better, especially the great Lillian Gish. Here she overacts to an almost embarrassing extreme, stuck between cooing at ducklings in a girlish manner or shrieking in a fit of madness.In fact, this film suffers from the same issue as Griffith's later epic, America (1924): it's too derivative of The Birth of a Nation (1915), with its bestial villains, bland central love story, and big battle scenes. Unfortunately, unlike Birth or America, Hearts' battle sequences are tension-free and uninspired.The sole redemptive feature of Hearts is Dorothy Gish as the Little Disturber. Flirty and free-spirited, she actually comes across as a human being in a world of uninspired stock characters. She also avoids being passive in her suffering and even rescues Robert and Lillian from death at the hands of the Huns during the climactic sequence.Only for those interested in Griffith or WWI propaganda; everyone else will leave disappointed.

An profound and astonishingly powerful film which, after the vile-spiritedness of "Birth Of A Nation" and the seeming hubris of "Intolerance", affirmed Griffith as a genuine humanist. A genuine anti-war film, unambivalent and unafraid to capture the truest horror.

This is a superb telling of war and how it affects the "common people." It begins with life in a small French village and how people go about their daily lives. This is the story of two Americans (Lillian Gish and Robert Harron) who meet and fall in love. But during their courtship Lillian's sister (Dorothy) takes a liking to Robert (called The Boy on the movie title cards) and tries to take him which leads to some interesting scenes. She finally realizes she can't have him and decides to take what she can have.There are good action battle scenes that very well show the chaos that is a battle. Chaos reigns supreme again when the town is bombed and the citizens have to flee. They have to try and pack then get out and still survive the bombing. Then there are those that don't want to leave. The movie does a good job of showing the horrors of death and the impact that has on people.War is about people. We tend to forget that (today's news refers to the impact on non-soldiers as 'collateral damage'). D.W. Griffith shows that impact. And yet, when it is over, how quickly we again look for the bright side of life and that is how it should be.One of the great features of this film is the limited use of title cards. They are used mostly as background filler and very little for conversations (much like Sunrise). Yet you know what is going on and the emotions of the moment. There is nothing mechanical about the acting. 8/10