Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love

Letty moves to West Texas from the East and it seems that the wind always blows and the sand gets everywhere. While living with relatives, she finds that she is not welcomed by the wife. With no where...( read more  read more... ) to go, she marries a man who disgusts her. Her new home is a small shack with the wind and the sand constant companions. When it is necessary for most of the men to go out into the sand storm, one stays back to have his way with Letty and that costs both of them. Adapted by Frances Marion.

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569 ratings

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Directed by: Victor Sjostrom

Release Date: November 23, 1928

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Flixster Reviews (51)


  • June 19, 2008
    Great film but the ending completely ruined it. Originally the ending involved Lillian Gish's character wandering into the desert to met her end after going insane. But the studio insisted that they had a happy ending so not to ruin Gish's career. Gish herself hated the new endi...( read more)ng at it's easy to see why.
  • October 27, 2009
    "Man - puny but irresistible - encroaching forever on Nature's vastnesses, gradually, very gradually wrestling away her strange secrets, subduing her fierce elements - conquers the earth!"

    The Wind (1928)


    Director: Victor Sjöström
    C...( read more)ountry: United States of America
    Genre: Drama / Western
    Length: 79 minutes

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    The Wind is definitely a very unique film unlike anything I had seen before. I was expecting a Western film with romance, but the film went beyond that. Swedish director Victor Sjöström makes a silent masterpiece which is beautifully crafted. The film is not only beautiful to watch, but it is also deep and symbolic. Its cinematography, visual style and its visual effects are worth-watching technical aspects of the film, which were pretty interesting on their own.

    The Wind deals with Letty Mason, a woman who has just moved to West Texas to live with her relatives, but is not welcomed by her cousin who ends up hating her. Mason later marries Lige, a man who "loves" her a little bit too much, but she doesn't. When she says to him that she hates him, he finally agrees to gather money so she can get out of there... but will he?

    Lillian Gish is the only shining star of this film. Her performance is outstanding and she was terrifically chosen for her role. The rest of the cast is pretty good as well. This is a wonderful MGM production with great music. The pace of the story is not rushed nor slow, but has some climatic and intense moments. A concept that I liked is that the wind can be interpreted as a symbolic element. Since she moves to her cousin's place, the protagonist realizes of the fact that the wind blows there much harder, like if the wheather itself were a superior entity rejecting her. She's not only afraid of the wind, but also of the consequences of her actions, especially when she realizes that she has nowhere else to go.

    The wind is not there by chance. It symbolizes that there is something in the personality of Mason that still has to be fixed and overcome. It is a fear within her that she must beat for her own sake, since it is also a process of self-discovery. I didn't see the ending coming, and whereas some people where dissapointed by it, I really think that it was just genius, and that the story doesn't really end there! Some people didn't really get it. It was just fantastic.

    Without arguing, this is a silent masterpiece and one of the greatest and earliest Western films of classic Hollywood. It has a lot of talent and it gave me a totally different feeling to it. Do not miss it, since this was perhaps the last silent masterpiece of the United States without including Chaplin who just wouldn't leave silent filmmaking.

    89/100
  • October 18, 2009
    Simple, haunting and beautiful
  • April 29, 2008
    if not for a baffling, out of place "Happy" ending forced upon the director by the studio, this film would be a masterpiece.
  • September 4, 2007
    An artistic achievement. The characters change over the course of the film, a mood is set and conveys a strong emotion to the audience. Lars Hanson looks a lot like Ralph Fiennes...
  • July 28, 2007
    excellent oldie....good story..
  • July 19, 2007
    All CLASSICS are GOOD
  • June 18, 2007
    Silent cinema at its purest. A stirring story with memorable characters.

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