AMERICA Movie Review

Love and Sacrifice

1924 D.W. Griffith

In many ways, D.W. Griffith's attempt to use the American Revolution the same way he had used the Civil War in Birth of a Nation is a better film. It lacks the blatant racism, excessive sentimentality, and religiosity; the important scenes are neatly built and suspenseful. But America also lacks the scope and the energy of the earlier film, and, most importantly, it lacks the originality.

Again, Griffith shows the war through the eyes of a couple on opposite sides of the conflict. Nathan Holden (Neil Hamilton) is a Massachusetts messenger, like his friend Paul Revere (Henry O'Neill), a rider who carries important correspondence between colonists who favor rebellion. On one trip south to Virginia, he meets Miss Nancy Montague (Carol Dempster), daughter of a wealthy Tory family. Though the Montagues are close personal friends of George Washington (Arthur Dewey), they're loyal to King George III (Arthur Donaldson). Despite their political differences, and the fact that she is far above his station, Nancy falls for Nathan, basically because he's a hunk who writes poetry for her. Nancy, however, has also caught the eye of the treacherous Capt. Walter Butler (Lionel Barrymore), who plans to side with the British in the upcoming revolution, then to betray them and set himself up as emperor of the continent.

To do that, he works with the Mohawk chief Joseph Brant (Riley Hatch) and Capt. Hare (Louis Wolheim), who also lusts after the fair Nancy. Butler even persuades Nancy's patrician father (Erville Alderson) to help him. Meanwhile, as the war progresses, Nathan rises through the ranks, giving Griffith and writer Robert W. Chambers license to hit all of the historical high points—Revere's ride, the battles of Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Valley Forge, and the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

Griffith worked with four cinematographers to re-create the battles, and they did reasonably accurate work, making effective use of high wide-angle shots. Most of those large-scale action scenes look more like the work of present day re-enactors than conventional Hollywood heroics. Even if the bad guys are broadly drawn lechers, Butler is based on a real character and the fictional conflicts have a foundation in fact. Changes in acting style, characterization, and tinted scenes (blue for night, red for anger) have dated the film, but the melodramatic structure is sound, and its blend of fiction and history has been copied hundreds, perhaps thousands of times since. On a more cinematic level, Griffith uses Revere's ride and the first battles to generate suspense, and he's even better with the big finish, where, again echoing Birth of a Nation, two storylines converge. Also, those unfamiliar with films made before the Hayes office applied its strict guidelines will be surprised by how violent and leeringly sexual it is at times.

A true Anglophile, Griffith had done propaganda films for the English during WW I and he did not want to cast them as villains. In fact, he edited a separate version of the film under the title Love and Sacrifice for distribution in England. Griffith also needed permission from the War Department to use troops and cavalry in the battle scenes, and he wanted the good wishes of such patriotic organizations as the Daughters of the American Revolution. Accordingly, this is very much an “official” version of history, with no hint of error or failing in any of the real figures

Cast: Neil Hamilton (Nathan Holden), Carol Dempster (Miss Nancy Montague), Lionel Barrymore (Capt. Walter Butler), Erville Alderson (Justice Montague), Charles Bennett (William Pitt), Arthur Donaldson (King George III), Charles Mack (Justice Charles Montague), Frank McGlynn (Patrick Henry), Henry O'Neill (Paul Revere), Ed Roseman (Capt. Montour), Harry Semels (Hikatoo), Louis Wolheim (Capt. Hare), Hugh Baird (Maj. Pitcairn), Lee Beggs (Samuel Adams), Downing Clarke (Lord Chamberlain), Sydney Deane (Sir Ashley Montague), Arthur Dewey (George Washington), Michael Donavan (Maj. Gen. Warren), Paul Doucet (Marquis de Lafayette), John Dunton (John Hancock), Riley Hatch (Joseph Brant, Chief of the Mohawks), Emil Hoch (Lord North), Edwin Holland (Maj. Strong), W.W. Jones (Gen. Gage), William S. Rising (Edmond Burke), Frank Walsh (Thomas Jefferson), James Milady (Jonas Parker); Written by: Robert W. Chambers; Cinematography by: Marcel Le Picard, Hendrik Sartov, Billy Bitzer, H. Sintzenich. Running Time: 141 minutes. Format: VHS, DVD.