The Wind

Director: Victor Sjöström
Year Released: 1928
Rating: 2.0

I'm not sure what the big hoopla is over this simple and contrived exercise in feminine hysteria (Tennessee Williams territory): the way I see it, it's about a woman who can't marry the man she wants, is forced to marry the man she doesn't want and then refuses to have sex with him (out of disgust? pure stubbornness?). Man's sexual virility is represented (very obviously, I might add) in the symbol of the wind and sand - brought on, most humorously, by an ethereal "white stallion." The 'real ending,' which Sjöström, Thalberg and Lillian Gish all wanted - it has the Gish character committing suicide - is about as nonsensical as the one that does exist: her deciding to finally sexually submit to her husband after holding out for so long.