The Pilgrim (1916)
Short western by Frank Borzage about a man called The Pilgrim who comes into a new town, establishes himself and falls in love with a woman.
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There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
This is a pretty lovely film starring the director himself, Frank Borzage. I personally found it illuminating. The Pilgrim is auteurist cinema in that Borzage wrote, directed, and starred in it. It's a Western with a difference, all about his own personal views on manhood, more exuberant than his mature work. He was a handsome devil, and here he's an itinerant sometimes cowpoke who takes life as it comes. He's got a backbone and can stand up for himself, but he's not mean, and he's not possessive. A happy-go-lucky type. Visually speaking the film is great, there's a particularly lovely shot of rolling hills at one point, and lots of location shooting. The relationship in the movie, betweem him and a college girl is very emotionally mature, particularly for a movie from those days. It comes across as incredibly modern and daring at points, like when he cares for a man he's cut up in a knife fight. Borzage seems a lot more humane and care-free at this point in his life. I absolutely love this film. At the festival screening I attended, this was accompanied by an ole time guitar and fiddle duo, the choice of music is critical, this isn't one for a standard piano score, needs something folksy.