TRUE HEART SUSIE begins with a feminist titlecard, warning us of the few rights we give to women. The film was made in 1919, when such issues were pertinent, and yet the human story of D.W. Griffith's silent film: TRUE HEART SUSIE seems just as real. Susie is in love with William, and under Griffith's ease with the camera in brilliant yellow and blue tones, we revel in their love. William looks kind of goofy, and Susie (Lillian Gish) is described as merely a "plain girl". Susie won't marry an uneducated man, and William is too poor to pay for college. Susie thus makes a sacrifice unbeknownst to William, and sells her best friend, a cow for money. Susie and her mother look sadly upon the departing cow, and the true of heart Susie begs the man to consider her "part of the family." William goes to college, and when he returns, he appears manly: with his hair back and a dashing mustache. Susie discovers that by sending William to college, that she herself is now beneath him. William is an educated minister now, and she is just a plain girl. William marries Bettina, a party-girl, and Susie is devastated in real scenes that show her screwed up face or her stoic stare. I love TRUE HEART SUSIE. It was a great film experience in its intelligence and ease. I think the film is more than a feminist statement, and undeserving of the term "you have to see this" when its delivered to a feminist. You have to see this, because it is about people and how they act. It's political, romantic, beautiful, transcendent, creative.
True Heart Susie: ★★★★
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