"A tender, tragic love story."

In 1919, D.W. Griffith made Broken Blossoms, a tender, tragic interracial love story, in response to the cries of racism that had rightly followed his flawed civil war epic The Birth of a Nation. Broken Blossoms tells the story of Chinaman Cheng Huan (referred to in the movie as The Yellow Man), sensitively played by Richard Barthelmess and his love for the innocent and abused Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish). When the story opens Cheng, in his native land, observes the violent ways of some British sailors and becomes convinced that he must travel to the western world and impart the pacifistic teachings of Buddha. He sets sail and we flash forward a few years. Cheng is now living in the Limehouse district in London running a small store. He is disillusioned by life and spends time in an opium den. The one bright light in his dismal world is young Lucy Burrows, a local urchin that also happens to be the abused daughter of the brutal prizefighter Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp).

After one particularly vicious beating Lucy staggers into The Yellow Man's shop and collapses on the floor. Cheng tenderly nurses her back to health, giving her the first love and affection she has ever known. She, at the same time, gives him dignity.

Of course this idyll cannot last. When Lucy's father finds out her whereabouts he goes on a murderous rampage. Without spoiling the details, lets just say the ending ain't pretty.

The movie, however, is one of the most beautiful and bittersweet love stories ever filmed. Cultural mores at the time would not allow any physical intimacy between the races. This elevates the story to a higher, poetic plane. It will uplift your spirit and then break your heart.

In the silent movie pantheon, Mary Pickford was America's Sweetheart, Theda Bara the Vamp, Clara Bow the eternal Flapper, and Gloria Swanson the regal Movie Star. Lillian Gish was simply the best actress of them all and this is, perhaps, her finest performance. Who can forget the little girl in rags bravely forcing a smile onto her face with her fingers as her eyes fill will tears?

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