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Film · Griffith · 1918

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Hearts of the World

26Leave it.

A village romance with the Gishes, built to make you pick the Allied side.

Take controlThis scores 26. Hearts of the World cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

Griffith wanted a feeling, and he built a village to get it. A love story in the Great War, filmed so an audience would take a side. Lillian and Dorothy Gish. A teen can watch it. It's propaganda that also wants to be a romance. I have to say so. The battle is the sell. The sweethearts are how he gets you to sit still for the argument.

I won't treat a recruitment picture like a kindness just because a village couple is in it. A romance used to stir you is a prop, not a household I trust. If a teen watches, sit there and name the Allied side the film was made to take. A love story with the battle as the sell is still an argument. The Gishes don't make that argument neutral.

Journal

Keep Hearts of the World in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 26. Yours can differ.

The glance

Industry and Household and Piety and Courage and Republic and Temperance and Truth and Stewardship are the thin ones.

Does anyone here do a real job, and does that job matter?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

Dr. Strangelove

38 instead of 26

Dr. Strangelove is still a war film, and it scores 38 instead of 26. What you gain is truth: The inadequacy is the truth, and the film will not give you a competent savior.

The eight

3
Industry
The battle is the sell, not anybody's ordinary work.
3
Household
The village lovers are a prop for a side, not a life kept.
2
Piety
Feeling is stirred on purpose, and nothing in it asks you to stop.
4
Courage
War risk is the hook, staged so the audience will take a side.
3
Republic
It assigns the Allies to the crowd: a campaign, not a town duty.
2
Temperance
Each battle beat asks for more feeling, not a cooler head.
2
Truth
A romance fronting propaganda isn't a true account of the war.
2
Stewardship
It leaves a side already picked, not a village put back.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Hearts of the World · 26IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · MGM · 1958

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Gigi

26Leave it.

A best picture. The training is the rot, and the marriage at the end does not redeem the school.

Take controlThis scores 26. Gigi cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

It won the best picture of its year, and the award does not change the curriculum. A grandmother and an aunt are training a young woman in Paris to be the mistress of a rich man: how to choose jewels, how to behave at the table, how to be expensive. The young man who has been wandering through other such arrangements decides he wants this one, and the happy ending is that he marries her instead. The film expects the marriage to retire the question.

It does not. The school was the story, and the school is a preparation of a girl for a man's use. The songs are lovely and the loveliness is the danger, because loveliness is how the curriculum gets past a room. I would not put it on for a young woman as a charming antique. If adults watch it as history, say what the aunt was actually teaching before the last waltz. The last waltz is not a pardon.