I have watched a number of Griffith's films including Intolerance, Way Down East, Birth of a Nation, Broken Blossoms, and Orphans of the Storm. I have to say the more of his films that you watch, the more predictable they become. I'm not talking just a predictable ending. It's predictable everything - the lame acting, the drawn out and overextended scenes, the over-reliance on subtitles to tell the story, the same camera angles, etc. You compare Griffith's work to another film from the same era (ones starring Harold Lloyd) and you see an immediate difference in directing quality. Griffith doesn't seem to want to take chances and that may have cost him his career. I do have to say that Sally of the Sawdust is far technically and aesthetically superior to any of Griffith's previous films.
The fight scenes near the beginning would have benefited from being edited out. They were very fake and cheesy looking. The film is very drawn out and moves at a glacial pace. Many of the scenes got very repetitive and overly long. After seeing more than a few minutes of the circus scenes, courtroom scenes, it just got old. I felt this film could have been half it's length without effecting the storyline. There were a lot of continuity errors, which is common for films of it's day, but especially true of Griffith's work. The picture quality was surprisingly good though. The background settings and camera work were much better done any of Griffith's previous work.
This film's ending simply lacks the excitement that I'm used to seeing - such as in Birth of a Nation and Orphans of a Storm. The suspense and choreography was not well done. Sally's escape from the courthouse also lacked credibility. You're like, this is so fake! How could a whole mob of people in an enclosed building not get to her? Overall this film is average. It may be worth watching from a historical perspective. If you're looking for a good story, skip it.
The fight scenes near the beginning would have benefited from being edited out. They were very fake and cheesy looking. The film is very drawn out and moves at a glacial pace. Many of the scenes got very repetitive and overly long. After seeing more than a few minutes of the circus scenes, courtroom scenes, it just got old. I felt this film could have been half it's length without effecting the storyline. There were a lot of continuity errors, which is common for films of it's day, but especially true of Griffith's work. The picture quality was surprisingly good though. The background settings and camera work were much better done any of Griffith's previous work.
This film's ending simply lacks the excitement that I'm used to seeing - such as in Birth of a Nation and Orphans of a Storm. The suspense and choreography was not well done. Sally's escape from the courthouse also lacked credibility. You're like, this is so fake! How could a whole mob of people in an enclosed building not get to her? Overall this film is average. It may be worth watching from a historical perspective. If you're looking for a good story, skip it.