The Wind (1928)

The Wind (1928) [silent feature film]

TV-PG

* * *

Lillian Gish (Letty Mason)(L) and Lars Hanson (Lieg Hightower)(R) Photo Credit: MGM Studios

In 1928, The Wind was released into theatres, and one of the last silent films released by MGM as talkies were becoming more widespread and preferred by audiences. The movie is set in the American West.

As was the norm in the late 1920s, the movie is shot entirely in black and white. The atmosphere of the film (helped by the lack of color) creates an unsettling and eerie feeling throughout, lending wonderfully to the underlying story of our main character, Letty. Letty Mason (Lillian Gish) is a young single female (age unknown, though presumed in her early 20s), traveling along on a train. We find out that she is traveling from Virginia to live with her (male) cousin Beverly in Sweet Water. She has nary a penny to her name, and the reason for why this is and why she is leaving Virginia is unknown and imbiguous. It is on this train that the catalyst of the movie occurs. She meets a cattleman, Wirt Roddy (Montagu Love). The character of Wirt Roddy is one that I cared not for from the moment I laid eyes on him. He came across as pushy, his body language screamed 'creep', and frankly the kind of guy I would wish to mace in the face if alone with. As a romantic lead, I found him more unsettling than swoon-worthy- especially in the way his body language 'spoke' to Letty. Though we later find out he's not the romantic lead, he's still a creep (though a testament to Love's acting ability)

For whatever reason, he decides to join her and tells her of how the wind is the cause of (mainly) woman's hysterics stating "-day in, day out, whistlin' and howlin'- makes folks go crazy- especially women!"He appears to delight in making Letty uncomfortable, which makes me as a viewer uncomfortable.

Lige Hightowner (Lars Hanson)- Beverly's nearest neighbor- had arrived to pick Letty up from the train in the dead of night after being asked to by Letty's (male) cousin. He and his partner Sourdough live just 15 miles from her cousin.

After being kicked out of her home in Sweet Water because of Beverly's jealous wife, Letty marries Lige for self-preservation rather than out of love. She's forced into marriage to have a roof over her head, and food on her plate. This is another (partial) misstep because Lieg turns out to be a bit violent himself (he grabs her one night and forces her into a rough liplock, along with giving her a lack of privacy whilst attempting to de-robe (though he does repent and promise to keep his distance from Letty- of which he does after she calls him out).

Some themes in this movie are rather dark. Men's control over others and the environment seems to be a big theme for me. The wind in itself appears to be about men's control over women, humankind, the earth, and repressed sexuality. The sandstorm and wind kicks up every time Letty and a man have some kind of a conflict. The bigger the conflict- the bigger the storm. In the climax of the movie, the sandstorm is so bad Letty cannot even walk sighted outside. Men are dying of starvation due to the sandstorm, so the cattlemen round up the wild horses (at $3 per horse) because the Government said they could. It is not explicitly stated that the horses were killed, but heavily implied.

Letty's mental health (and decline) is a second storyline rivaling the main storyline. Letty's mental health has increasingly disintegrated during the film. At the start, she was a young woman on a train, calm and even-keeled. She meets Roddy who tells her about the wind and what the Native Americans said about the wind (causing women to go crazy). As she has become hyper-focused on the wind and the sounds it had poisoned her mind causing Letty to see images of horses in her mind's eye, in the clouds, and in the sand. As the movie progresses, she becomes increasingly obsessed with the wind blowing, fearing the words that Roddy spoke to her on the train.

By the end of the film, she's fully engulfed in her madness, all created by the control and gaslighting of men. Roddy plays with her mind first by causing her to first fear the wind, and then by controlling it (her) by making her think of things that are more pleasant ("It'll soon be spring in Virginia-- think of the fields, all thick with wild violet--") creating this knight in shining armor persona as if he's the one who will save her from the fear that he created in the first place, by asking her to come back with him. Roddy's behavior instead makes Letty run towards her husband Lieg and for the first time feel appreciation towards the man who she married(albeit out of desperation).

Before the climax of the film, Letty is so full of anxiety, fear, and confusion that a hurricane lamp gets knocked over in the windstorm and catches part of the house on fire. Rather than respond Letty simply sits on the bed in a daze watching the flames wide-eyed (before stapping to and smothering it with a blanket). After the movie's last major moment (keeping this spoiler-free!) it is implied that she imagined the event took place as her husband Lieg saw no evidence of it taking place. After this happens, it's as if a weight is lifted from her shoulders, and the old Letty comes back out almost as if she is reborn.

The use of color/fabric is an interesting decision to show the viewer Letty's mental state. When she is alright, she wears white/light colors throughout most of the film (depicting her youthful/virginal mindset). As the movie progresses and Letty begins to deal with things that happen to her, her clothing begins to adopt darker pieces showing that a 'shadow has fallen over her purity. She is still Letty, but with added scars.

There was one scene of the movie that I am on the fence on whether it was even necessary- the ending rape scene. The scene in of itself is a mere implication- but for the severity of the act and the heaviness of an emotional impact it should have had on Letty, it did not feel as if it was explored enough (she does not even express this happened to her husband to justify her shooting of Wirt Roddy). As the movie was an adaptation of a novel, little room was allowed to alter the course of the story, but I felt the movie could have shown this in a different way. Have Letty feel the effects of what has happened to her- she failed to even shed a single tear!

The special effects were pretty interesting for the time. To show the howling wind, it appears to be more of a hurricane or snowstorm against the glass of the train's window (though neither weather was mentioned). I loved the horses in the sky that were representing the ghost horses in the clouds that the Native Americans spoke of.

Overall, I have found this movie to be fast-moving but tiring to view. I thought Lillian Gish's performance was brilliant, but the script definitely left something to be desired. For a movie that alleges romance, I found very few examples of what I would classify romance- even in 1920s depictions. What I found was a movie of sadness, rejection, fear, anxiety, abuse, and violation. This movie would have been much better received if the genre were changed to drama alone.