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.
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.