A Corner in Wheat

Despite limitations in sound (it's silent) and length (it's a 14 minute short) Griffiths manages to instill in this period piece more wisdom than some directors do in their entire careers. The wheat is symbolic for wealth, it slips through ones fingers, its a constant focus for all (those who want it, and those who ultimately suffocate through greed for it). It is omnipresent and seems to bring more misery than happiness, but alas it is also used as a sign that some things we never learn.

They say that one of Griffith's most notable virtues was his ability to tell a story that the audience could understand. But so far, that's my biggest problem with him; everything is overtold (I mean, please, TWO big signs in the bread store?!) to an extent that it becomes boring and I stop paying attention, ultimately resulting in me not getting the story afterall. Ironic, yes, but still friggin' boring.

Heavy-handed, but not entirely ineffective despite its blunt melodrama. Still pretty weak and the shot of the rich tycoon literally drowning in a grain elevator is hilarious in its heavy-handedness.

Deep man, real deep.

An interesting, if somewhat inelegant, piece of social commentary. It makes it it's point but could have done it better and in less running time.

Mediocre short with some hilariously heavy-handed symbolism.

Surprisingly good for what it was. It was nice to see a film from this year that wasn't completely boring or relying on gimmicks.

Estreava há 110 anos nos EUA. Duas palavras: Griffith comunista. Rá! No youtube.

Griffith amps up the contrast of his juxtapositions, but the story is played a bit too broadly to be anything beyond a simplistic fable. It also ends about three minutes too late.

Didn't care.

it's fine i suppose. i know i'm supposed to care about it cuz it's like the beginning of cinema and so on, but, y'know, it's boring, so i find it hard to really give a shit. i mean, méliès was pretty much the only guy with some imagination, but i don't really like slapstick, so, well, whatever. hooray?

Had moments of brilliance but felt too dated and preachy.

Very nice music, and well staged, but not enough narration to explain what we are watching. Why wouldn't the wheat farmers be pleased about the higher wheat price? Sure, bread is more expensive, but the amout of bread they buy is presumably a small fraction of the amount of wheat they sell on a value-weighted basis.

ekmek üreticisi ve ekmek piyasisini elinde tutan adam hakkinda. Ekmek krali, fiyatlari arttirinca insanlar sikinti çekiyor. 9 dakika ama baştan kayip ediyor. tarlada yürüme 70 sn.

Incredible storytelling, beautiful sets and a story so dense that I just crave more and more and... I don't feel like the director got EVERYTHING out of this one, I mean, there was SO much left for the viewer to interpret. But it delivered perfectly, HE is after all the tolerant dude of our ages, inventing cinematic language with every frame.. Maybe I'm just not ambitious enough as a viewer to understand what Homer of modern day paints with celluloid- WAIT!, wrong movie- 'Dis be whack stuff, yo!

Rich man corners wheat market. Does evil things. People suffer. Some very broad strokes here.

And the moral of the story is: don't try to corner the world wheat market.

A strong little short that juxtaposes contrastes like no film before. Still pretty interesting both technically and storywise today...