The Eternal Strife (1915) User Reviews

Slow and stately

[threemendous · 4/10 · 18 April 2015]

Britain's first epic film was based on a 17th-century tragic play and said to have been filmed in response to the success of Birth of a Nation, from which it doesn't seem to have learnt much. The stagey acting relies on arms thrust skyward to indicate horror, anger, despair etc. The decor is painted. The pace is mostly slow.

The narrative is a mess: it mostly involves using title cards to say what happens in the next scene, then illustrating it. And yet it still leaves great holes in the plot. What is the jealous Margaret telling King Edward? (Presumably that the man whose marriage she is trying to wreck is a rebel.) What is Richard of Gloucester - the future Richard III - up to, poisoning his brother and then executing a bridegroom and condemning his bride for witchcraft? Just being evil? And why on earth is a defeat in battle for Edward's Yorkists announced, when the film carries right on as if it hasn't happened, with the supposedly defeated Edward still king and the supposedly victorious Lancastrian Matthew Shore fleeing to Flanders?

There are some good visual moments. The aftermath of the two battles - actually the same one, in the same place - shows the defeated, hundreds strong, slithering and sliding down a steep hillside. There's a repeated dynamic camera angle that allows characters to walk toward the camera and exit to the left while remaining in focus (as far as I can tell with a non-HD film 100 years old). There's some highly impressive medieval millinery for the women. And the final sequence, with Jane cast out into a "blizzard", hounded by the crowd, all tinted in blue, is genuinely striking. Alas, with typical disdain for emotional impact, the film has her husband returning to find her but instead of allowing them even an embrace it stops short, in long shot, the second he touches her. The End.

Suffering in Ermine

[boblipton · 4/10 · 23 July 2018]

This movie is a biopic of one of the mistresses of Edward IV, set against the background of the War of the Roses. As it opens, Blanche Forsythe (as Jane) has just gotten married to goldsmith Robert Purdie, much to the annoyance of his cousin, Dora de Winton, who proceeds to make trouble for the heroine. The king spots her as Mr. Purdie is thrown into jail for making speeches in favor of the Yorkists. The king threatens to kill her husband unless she will submit to him.... well, what's a girl to do? Similar male actions keep getting Miss Forsythe in more and more trouble, resulting in her having to be the mistress of all sorts of rich and powerful people, until she has to unjustly suffer for it. Poor girl!

It's a huge production, with hundreds, if not thousands of extras visible in the battle scenes and crowd scenes, which is all the more astonishing given that this was released ten months after the First World War had begun.

I was not thrilled. First, it is clearly intended as spectacle, and spectacle, to me, is what you do when you don't have anything important to do. It uses the already-dated "chapter heading" technique of film making, in which the titles tell you what you are about to see, and then the performers act it out. True, this had been established as suitable for big pictures with FROM THE MANGER TO THE CROSS, and survived into the sound era, but it never fails to annoy me unless there is something unexpected in the image, some ironic take of the text. The last major annoyance was the acting of Miss Forsythe, who cannot seem to say anything without raising her arms above her head and and turning her face away from woever she is speaking to.

On the plus side, producer William Barker served as one of the two cameramen on this picture and he was one of the most experienced hands in the business, with credits running back to 1897. There's little doubt he knows how to shoot pageantry; I just don't think it usually worth bothering. Still, I know it's an opinion I don't share with many.

Contemporary review from The Scotsman - Tuesday 11 May 1915

[ginny-59303 · 4 April 2017]

CINEMA HOUSE . Historical incidents associated with our own and other countries have been admirably depicted by the cinematograph. What is regarded as one of the finest of these historical productions is "Jane Shore ," which, in addition to its other merits , has the recommendation that it is entirely a product of British enterprise and industry in film-making . Painstaking care has characterised the production of the film, as the many fine scenes with which it abounds clearly show . An indication of the lavish scale on which the film, which comes from the "Barker Motion Photography (Limited), is produced, is to be had in the fact that it cost over £10,000, no fewer than 5748 artistes took part in it, and in one scene 3500 people participated. The period with which the story of "Jane Shore" deals is that of the Wars of the Roses and the stirring episodes of that eventful time. The romantic story of Jane Shore and Edward II., the historic events in which famous personages participate, the gorgeous scenes, the pageantry of the streets, and other features too numerous to mention, combine to make an excellent film. The acting throughout is natural, the costumes are appropriate to the period o of the story, and care has been paid to every detail. The battle scenes are fine examples of what can be accomplished by the cinematographer's art . The film is being shown this week at the Cinema House, where it was witnessed yesterday afternoon by a large attendance of visitors.