Pretty Good

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Back in the very early years of film there were more child performers than any other period in film history. Fan magazines were full of articles where child stars told of their favourite doll or pet. Most children earned $3.50 for appearing in a minor role and for most poor families the money was a godsend. Little Gladys Egan was often in American Biographs and "In the Border States" was her movie all the way.When a foraging Confederate soldier happens on a farm "in the border states" he is helped to water by a small child (Egan) whose prejudices are put aside in her sympathy for the thirsty man. You can see the emotions working on Gladys' face - has she done the right thing etc?? - Union soldiers ask her for assistance and she points them in the wrong direction.Meanwhile her father is sent on a perilous mission (he is a Union officer) and returns home shot - at the same time as the soldier whom Gladys had helped has returned with a group of Confederates looking for the wounded man. This time the soldier is able to return the favour, although at the end Gladys takes a bow as she accepts all the praise. While others were acting their heads off, Gladys and her sister were acting natural and just being themselves. Another standout is the camera work from Billy Bitzer - scenes shot looking down a hill as the rebel soldiers, then the wounded soldier make their way up the grassy slope almost into the camera lens.

In the Border States is one of the earlier occasions on which DW Griffith dealt with the Civil War, although unlike so many of his battle films from the Biograph period, this one is less about action and more significant for the acting, characterisation and handling of emotion.The opening couple of shots are perfect examples of Griffith's economy of expression. There is no opening title to set the scene – all you need is that first shot of the wife, children and younger man in uniform, and you immediately know this is a close-knit family, and the father is a Union officer. The second shot – the army column advancing round the corner, implies that the father will soon have to leave for the battle lines. The following shots of the family's varying reactions are particularly complex and carefully composed. Of extra note is the way Griffith draws our attention to young Gladys Egan by twice placing her in the centre of the frame, putting her in a darker coloured dress and putting her actions slightly out of synch with her sisters. This is a vast improvement on many earlier Griffith shorts, in which many characters tend to look and act the same.The action sequences are fairly brief. In a chase scene, there is a good selection of location shots, and some tense cross-cutting. There is one moment which looks very jarring to us today, and that is a mismatch between the directions people travel between shots. Charles West leaves one shot left to right, then enters the next frame right to left, which looks a little odd. To confuse things even more, one of the pursuing confederates fires his gun towards screen-right, and we then cut to West dodging the bullet from screen-right, as if he was facing the same way rather than being opposite. It was actually Charlie Chaplin who really addressed this problem of mismatching shots, and you can see the difference when he began directing his own pictures at Keystone.The culmination of all this is a by-now familiar claustrophobic climax, in which the hero is trapped inside a room while the door is battered down. It's a fairly well constructed one, with several different strands adding extra tension – secret dispatches that must be burned, a large group of soldiers on their way. There's also a great example of how Griffith punctuates action when the little girl fires her father's gun at the exact moment Henry Walthall breaks down the door. The gunshot serves no purpose to the story, since she misses, but it really gives the moment an extra impact.In the Border States demonstrates, in a single film, the rather ambiguous attitude Griffith had towards the war. He shows heroism and nobility exists on both sides, and even draws parallels between the experiences of West, the Union officer, and Walthall, the confederate. This even-handedness, and occasional self-contradiction runs all through Griffith's work.

During the Civil War, there were many cases of divided loyalties; obviously, many occurred "In the Border States", where North met South by happenstance of geography. From the border, young father Owen Moore goes off to join the Union Army. Shortly, Confederate soldier Henry B. Walthall, separated from his regimen, wanders onto the enemy's property, desperate for water; he finds a supply where the Unionist's young daughter Gladys Egan sits. When the Yankee soldiers track him down, Little Gladys innocently helps the Confederate hide. Later, when he returns to kill her father, the little girl's kindness is remembered. A sweet, small story from director D.W. Griffith. Location footage and humanity are lovingly displayed. ***** In the Border States (6/13/10) D.W. Griffith ~ Henry B. Walthall, Owen Moore, Gladys Egan

During the 1910s, there were a large number of films made in the US about the Civil War--most likely since the 50th anniversary of its start and finish were being celebrated. I've seen quite a few compared to most people alive today and some of them are pretty good (like this one) and some are incredibly old fashioned and totally ridiculous. I was happy to see that even though the plot here is a bit difficult to imagine actually happening, the film itself isn't so heavy-handed and schmaltzy as many of the day. In fact, the film is pretty low-key and the acting is a bit easier to believe than most--with less wild gesticulating and over-acting than usual. The film is a very simple film about a family living in a Border state that is caught up in the war. In many ways, it's like the old story about the lion and the mouse that pulled the splinter out of the lion's paw--only to later have this act of kindness repaid in kind. While this film WON'T change your life, it's well-made, interesting and gives what looks like a real window into the Civil War.