User reviews

It is astonishing to look at this ten-minute western and see a love triangle, an Indian attack, people crawling through the dessert in search of water, the cavalry to the rescue -- enough story, in fact, for two John Ford westerns and one Douglas Sirk weeper, performed in ten minutes, with some photography that, even now, is startling in its novelty and beauty. And this is considered one of Griffith's LESSER pictures.

Although Griffith directed more than five hundred pictures, almost all of which survive, he has a vast corpus of works that are rarely seen, because so many people concentrate on his best features and perhaps a dozen of his best-known shorts. Kino is to be applauded for including a sizable number of his lesser-known, but equally powerful shorts in their most recent compilation, and for hiring John Mirsalis to do scores.

The Last Drop of Water is a relatively rare Western from Griffith, coming from a point in his career where all the techniques he would develop were beginning to come together, and yet he was still a little way off the level of perfection he would achieve in his best Biograph shorts the following year.

In this entirely outdoor picture you get to see what Griffith could achieve with background and foreground. In the opening scene he cuts to a different shot when the spurned lover trudges away. This new shot has a very empty, plain background, compared to the busy previous shot. This makes him look isolated, but more importantly it also focuses our attention on the actor. A large and often overlooked part of cinematic craft is how good directors draw our attention to different things through arrangement of the shot, and Griffith was particularly skilled at this.

The focus changes somewhat after this initial scene as the canvas is expanded to the big wagon train. We now get to see Griffith's growing confidence with crowd scenes, and again it's the backgrounds which are worth paying attention to. With his handling of the extras Griffith creates a realistic backdrop for the drama – those people aren't just milling around, they are all doing different tasks, and yet they aren't allowed to distract from the more important business in the foreground.

The sequence of Indians attacking a wagon train, after which the cavalry comes to the rescue shows that even in the early 1910s there were certain conventional Western story lines and excuses for action around which another more intimate story could revolve. Funnily enough it is in this attempt to balance the two in a short film that makes The Last Drop of Water fall a bit short. Neither the drama in the desert nor the action of the attack is fully developed. Occasionally intertitles gloss over important points and, while the introductory scene and the conclusion benefit from their succinctness, no part of the main story is given the time it deserves.

This simple but effective one-reel drama is one of many examples of the gradual refinements in technique that can be seen in D. W. Griffith's developmental years as a director. The setup and the character development are somewhat thin, and this is the main thing that differentiates it from his better features. The exposition and action, though, are done quite effectively.

The story begins with a brief scene showing a young woman choosing between two suitors, and then follows all three of them as they head west as settlers. When their party falls under attack, it puts them into a situation that particularly tests the character of the two men, when the group of settlers desperately needs water in order to continue.

The action scenes are filmed in convincing fashion for the time, and they are good forerunners of the even more elaborate scenes of battles, sieges, and attacks in some of Griffith's later and better-known movies.

The characters are not quite as deep, and in later movies Griffith would find better ways of efficiently establishing a character's nature and personality. Here, the key difference in character between the two suitors is established only on the simplest of levels, by having one of them shown drinking frequently.

Overall, this feature is of some interest as a drama, but only to those who are already fans of its era and genre. It's a little more interesting as an example of what is and is not particularly effective in terms of its techniques.

In 1909, D.W. Griffith inspired sympathy for the plight of the Native American tribes in his film, 'The Red Man's View (1909).' However, by two years later, it seems that they've gone back to being the villains, the primitive savages against which these brave American colonists must fight to survive. Director John Ford certainly drew much inspiration from Griffith's work, and all the basic elements of Westerns like 'Fort Apache (1948)' and 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)' are already here in this 13-minute short: a love triangle, hopeless drunkard, an Indian attack, a cavalry charge, and a villain finding redemption. There's also a hint of Griffith's later epics about this film, as the director must have had a hard time coordinating such an extensive convoy of actors, horses and wagons, all in the violent swirl of the desert dust. A straightforward but relatively far-reaching story, 'The Last Drop of Water (1911)' is a very effective Biograph from the prolific director, and one that certainly deserves to be better known.

Blanche Sweet, the fifteen-year-old heroine from 'The Londale Operator (1911), here plays Mary, a young woman who must choose between two male suitors. For some reason, she picks the slimy and older drunk Jim (Charles West) over the handsome John (Joseph Graybill), only realising her mistake when her new husband starts habitually beating her in booze-soaked tantrums. Then, during a desert crossing, those dreaded and faceless Indians start attacking, and the convoy soon finds itself running low on water. Both Jim and John agree to make a dash for the nearest waterhole, scurrying desperately through the dirt, their movements kicking clouds of dust into the air. However, both soon collapse next to each other in exhaustion. Will Jim atone for his nasty behaviour by aiding his former competitor? You, of course, already know the answer to this question, but Griffith allows the story to unfold with an endearing simplicity. 'The Last Drop of Water' is a very good early Western, and a crucial step in developing the identity of the genre.

An average, almost unintentionally funny at times, western from D W Griffiths. You get the impression he could knock this sort of thing out in an afternoon if it wasn't for all the costumes and props.

Fair film, directed by D.W. Griffith. Jim and John (Charles West and Joseph Graybill) are friends, and rivals for the attention of fetching Mary (Blanche Sweet). She picks John for her mate - and, soon, they are all aboard a Wagon Train crossing the dessert. Unfortunately, Ms. Sweet finds herself being physically abused by her drunken husband; probably, she picked the wrong rival. As if that wasn't enough… Indians attack!

Relatively low excitement from Mr. Griffith and company. Big bad John eventually has an opportunity for atonement - will he give up his "Last Drop of Water" to save the life of his dying friend?

**** The Last Drop of Water (7/27/11) D.W. Griffith ~ Blanche Sweet, Joseph Graybill, Charles West

A story of the great American desert, suggested by the lines written by Philip Sidney, who gave a drop of water on the blood to the salvation of the brotherhood. Two suitor, Jim and John, court a girl, who hugs, when she is alone with him, John while the other is desperately bent on a pole. After their marriage , they go to west with their caravan and combine forces with the people of a train to defend themselfes from Indians. The "weakling" is a violent man. The field of the framing are all field and American field until a very long field where the caravans are smalled compared to the desert. Indians attack and volunteers are called to get more water. Jim gives away his small share and is between life and death because he needs a last drop. The " weakling", John, gives him the last drop so he survives. After, there is the peace. The movie is one of the first westerns. There is the characteristic theme of the challenge and survival in nature. There are nicknames that delineate characters such as the "weakling" and how they will be in the later westerns (for example those of John Ford and Sergio Leone) nicknames like "Liberty Valance" the "good", the "ugly" and the "bad". In "The last drop of the water " win generosity and peace, as if peace were the consequence of the gesture of salvation.