Find Movies & TV
Home
Live TV
On Demand
Discover
Explore
Movies & TV Shows
Most Popular
Leaving Soon
Explore
Browse Channels
Featured Channels
Sign In
Way Down East
Directed by
D.W. Griffith
Not Rated
1920
2h 27m
Drama
,
Romance
,
and more
7.3
96%
70%
7.0
Watch Free
A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.
More
Cast of Way Down East
Lillian Gish
Anna Moore
Richard Barthelmess
David Bartlett
Lowell Sherman
Lennox Sanderson
Burr McIntosh
Squire Bartlett
Kate Bruce
Mother Bartlett
Mrs. David Landau
Anna Moore's Mother
Josephine Bernard
Mrs. Emma Tremont
Mrs. Morgan Belmont
Diana Tremont
Patricia Fruen
Diana's Sister
Florence Short
The Eccentric Aunt
Vivia Ogden
Martha Perkins
Porter Strong
Seth Holcomb
George Neville
Constable Rube Whipple
Edgar Nelson
Hi Holler
Mary Hay
Kate Brewster - the Squire's Niece
Creighton Hale
Professor Sterling
Emily Fitzroy
Maria Poole - Landlady
Carol Dempster
Barn Dancer (uncredited)
Louise Lawson
Minor Role (uncredited)
Athole Shearer
Barn Dancer (uncredited)
See all
Way Down East Ratings & Reviews
Billboard
W. Stephen Bush
Mr. Griffith has the eye of a landscape painter of the first flight.
InSession Film
Zita Short
The whole film really builds up to the big set piece that lets the story go out on a bang.
Gone With The Twins
Mike Massie
An epic romance (with an epic runtime, which hurts the pacing now and then), containing striking imagery, colorful characters, and heartfelt interactions.
New York Daily News
Ruth Boyle
Way Down East is a beautiful and satisfying picture.
Motion Picture Magazine
Adele Whitley Fletcher
To Lillian Gish goes the major portion of the honor. She is a new Lillian, offering a portrayal which will stand foremost among the characterizations of the screen... She is, undoubtedly, a great artist.
New York Tribune
Harriette Underhill
It is difficult to write of this latest picture without dealing almost entirely in superlatives. Lillian Gish has discovered new ways of making you love her, and surely no one else could make that wishy-washy Anna Moore a real person!
CinePassion
Fernando F. Croce
One of Griffith's most rousing visions of film as visual-emotional ebb and flow, connection and rupture
Combustible Celluloid
Jeffrey M. Anderson
This is melodramatic soap opera at its most blatant and at its very best.
Variety
Variety Staff
With the gathering together of a relatively small cast and less than half a dozen stellar film artists, D.W. has taken a simple, elemental, old-fashioned, bucolic melodrama and milked it for 12 reels of absorbing entertainment.
Filmcritic.com
Paul Brenner
If you are not moved at the scene of Gish baptizing her dead baby, then you should check the obituaries of your local paper to see if you are listed.
Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Dennis Schwartz
Old-fashioned bucolic soap opera doesn't translate well to modern-times.
Classic Film and Television
Michael E. Grost
Classic feminist film
TV Guide
TV Guide Staff
The movie is today noted chiefly for its legendary climactic episode: a harrowingly realistic sequence in which the hero hurdles a succession of floating ice blocks to save the heroine from being washed over the falls.
Washington Post
Mark Adamo
What's amazing is that so much of Gish's tough, funny, intuitive performance, particularly in the film's middle section as she bears her illegitimate child, transcends time, place and technology.
Chicago Reader
Dave Kehr
Through his star, Lillian Gish, Griffith gives the story an emotional power that lifts this 1920 silent feature to the level of a folktale; it becomes something simple, strong, and timeless.
Filmsite
Tim Dirks
Way Down East (1920) is D. W. Griffith's classic, silent melodramatic film. He bought the film rights to the story, originally a stage play of the same name
Take Plex everywhere
Watch free anytime, anywhere, on almost any device.
See the full list of supported devices
Home
Live TV
On Demand
Discover
Categories
Action
Animation
Comedy
Crime
Descriptive Audio
Documentary
Drama
En Español
Horror
Music
Romance
Sci-Fi
Thriller
Western
NFL Channel
Hallmark Movies & More
Miss Universe
Categories
Hit TV
Drama TV
True Crime
Comedy
News
Sports
Reality
History & Science
Movies
Sci-Fi & Action
Classic TV
Food & Home
Lifestyle
Nature & Travel
Daytime TV
Game Shows
Kids & Family
Anime+
Chills & Thrills
International
En Español
Music
