Always nice/surprising to agree with Kael.

Home Sweet Home (1914)

Hard to watch one Griffith film without another. This film although featuring an almost identical cast, and being produced in the same year as Judith, the films could hardly be more different. John Payne, the composer behind the song "Home Sweet Home" is shown here as his life if intercut with several groups of people who each seem to be effected in a different way by the title song. This shifting group of protagonists make things a little hard to follow. The length of this film unfortunately makes it hard for us to really care for any of the particular characters. In all honesty this is not one of Griffith's best works, and its historical significance is negligible. Gish commented that the film was the first "all-star" picture, but in reality the cast was pretty much the Griffith regulars. As one of Griffith's more contemporary films this allows to carry on most of already well established themes. Few characters seem completely bad, and everyone seems to be redeemable. The ending is a little silly, but is one of the few moments of fantasy in a Griffith film I can recall. That said, Gish commented that she can't watch the ending with a straight face, oh well.