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The Wind
(1928)
In legendary Swedish director Victor Sjostrom's (billed
as "Victor Seastrom") masterpiece, and one of the last
great silent films:
- the stark realism of scenes of lengthy gusty, howling
and gritty wind/sand storms pounding the remote cabin
- the wedding night scene that conveyed naive bride
Letty Mason's (Lillian Gish) paralyzing fear with her new husband
Lige (Lars Hanson) - by contrasting shots of the pacing of her feet
and his cowboy boots
- the nightmarish scene of Letty's petrified fears of
being left alone with the raging sandstorm outdoors - symbolized
by the brief dreamy, ghostly sight of a powerful bucking white stallion
- Letty's (off-screen) rape by Wirt Roddy (Montagu Love)
and his accidental point-blank shooting
- her attempt to bury Roddy's body during the fierce
wind and sandstorm
- her half-crazed reactions at the window as she saw
the body partially unearthed by the sandstorm's raging wind
- the studio's distorting tacked-on, upbeat and hopeful
ending, including her vow to Lige who had returned to her rescue: "I'm
not afraid of the wind - I'm not afraid of anything now -- because
I'm your wife - to work with you - to love you -!"; they stood
at the open door facing the wind, strongly embracing each other,
before the scene faded to black
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