Played in unedited wide shots and running to dozen a side battles, this one anticipates the Anna Magnani film by half a century. It shows the leader's wife accompanying him on his campaign, harassed by white uniform soldiers and dying nobly.
The performance style is histrionic with lots of flinging arms about and the occasional clutching the heart. The restrained acting of the twenties Italian silents was still to come but the use of actual historic exterior locations and elaborate costuming was already in place. It appears to have been made without artificial lighting.
The contemporary films of David Griffith were already more restrained, more plausible but at this length ANITA GARIBALDI is an interesting glimpse into the evolution of film drama.