Broken Blossoms is a very intense film, in keeping with the pattern of D.W. Griffith's previous two films, the subject matter of an interracial affair and the way the woman's father rejects it, brutally, reflects an honest truth at the time. Interracial marriages and relationships were heavily taboo and often attacked, physically. And the desire to put onscreen, real life, and the true nature of human beings in an era where the ills of society and life were very stark and clear is extremely apparent in this film.
It is bold, brutal, and shocking with the climactic scene of the white woman's father breaking down a closet door that she is hiding behind to attack her for being with a Chinese lover is extremely scary. It really throws you as a viewer because it comes across so real, especially with the cross-cutting of the father outside banging on the door and the close up of Lilian Gish hiding and reacting in a corner. And the use of editing makes the father seem so close to her that it's very visceral. On a side note this scene in particular feels like a precursor to the scene in the Shining where Jack Nicholson breaks down the bathroom door.
In the same way that Birth of A Nation was troubling for it portrayal of minorities, the portrayal of a Chinese character through the use of a white actor is very revealing in terms of the notion of racial superiority at the time. However, what is strange is the lengths that the director and actor go to to attempt to create a very realistic portrayal of this other race. And I would venture so far as to say that if you were part of the audience of the day you would buy it.
And in stark contrast to the racist method of production, the film itself tells a story that exposes racism and makes you empathize with the Chinese character. In fact, the white man is cast as a villain.
In terms of performance, as I mentioned earlier with Birth of A Nation being a turning point in terms of translating subtext and character across to an audience, Broken Blossoms really highlights the shift in early silent films where performance can be very effective, revealing, and create an authentic sense of emotional intimacy with the actor/character. Lillian Gish is an incredible actress, and that really shows in this film. Especially in the closet scene, her close ups are extremely heartwrenching because you can see the authentic state of fear, panic, and sense of imprisonment by her father and society all around her coming out in her tears. Supposedly, D.W. Griffith shouted at her during the shot to the degree that she reacted in this authentic way and that's how he got the sincerity of the performance he needed.
In contrast to Birth of a nation or Intolerance, what you really get in Broken Blossoms is intimacy, and it is a brutal intimacy. Lilian Gish screams and claws out for someone to help her in such resolute anguish that you feel her pain on an immediate and neighborly level. While the great thing about birth of a nation and intolerance is that they take stage plays or the method of filming movies like theater and bring them to a whole other level of fantasy and grandeur, Broken Blossoms shows us the power of the screen as a mirror to life. The story is not as grandiose or epic in scale, and because it is simpler it’s more effective at translating the experience of real life. That’s what’s so scary about it, and you can argue that Griffith’s strength is in capturing these very sincere emotions from his actors during these grandiose scenes.
And that really comes out with Broken blossoms.