It’s not a film criticism:)
Tol’able David is a very successful American silent film in 1921 not only for its box office success but also for its long period influence. The film received rave reviews from critics, producers and audiences.It is a 99 minutes film which means it has a complete story structure, the three Acts. In every act, character's action and motivation are clearly, which let audience easy to understand the whole story even though it is silent. In my opinion, the most important thing in silent film is actor's performance. Because we cannot hear their lines, so the performance will attract audience meanwhile telling stories. Ernest. Torrance's Luke is regarded as the most outstanding symbol of evil in the history of cinema.
The theme of Tol’able David is interesting. This film was shot between World War I and World War II, and the story happened in the American rural area, which express some unvarnished, simply, righteous values. Our protagonist is a little boy in other’s eyes. However, after his elder brother died in an accident and his father died in heart attack, he grows up so quickly and becomes a brave, responsible man. The theme of this film is that evil will be defeated by justice. It is that perfect example of "plastic material" for use in "film technology" by the famous master, Пудовкин. Its simple, touching story makes that film as "an eternal part of historical America rural history".
About the practical production, we find that most of the camera works are as simple as other contemporaneous pieces. The director is the same person as photographer who used fix position, and most of the frames are full shot and full size. Although it makes me a little bit tedious when I was watching it, it works, audience understand what the director wants to express. And the color of film is changing with different time. I saw three colors, green, yellow, blue in this film. I find that there are some close up when director wants to shot some specific objects, like the dog, the cow, but there are not too much close.
