Editing Broken Blossoms (section)

==Themes==
{{quote box|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk|fontsize=100%|salign=center|quote= "If Lillian Gish's performance in ''Broken Blossoms'' is to be counted among her greatest film roles, then the performance of Richard Barthelmess is her perfect complement. Cheng Huan is portrayed as a deeply reverent and compassionate man, whose love for peace is equaled only by his love for beauty. He finds both qualities when he shelters Lucy from the savageries of Burrows. In the end he is corrupted by the forces that surround him…Too late to save Lucy, too late to save even himself, he throws himself into an uneven struggle with determination and courage, the final and ultimate sacrifice to Lucy and their spiritual happiness."—Film historian Paul O’Dell in ''Griffith and the Rise of Hollywood'' (1970)<ref>O’Dell, 1970 p. 125-127</ref>}}

Cruelty and injustice against the innocent are a recurring theme in Griffith's films and are graphically portrayed here. The introductory card says, "We may believe there are no Battling Burrows, striking the helpless with brutal whip — but do we not ourselves use the whip of unkind words and deeds? So, perhaps, Battling may even carry a message of warning."

''Broken Blossoms'' was released during a period of strong anti-Chinese feeling in the U.S., a fear known as the [[Yellow Peril]]. The phrase "Yellow Peril" was common in the U.S. [[newspaper]]s owned by [[William Randolph Hearst]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,746032,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907021038/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,746032,00.html |url-status=dead|archive-date=September 7, 2008|magazine=Time|title=Foreign News: Again, Yellow Peril|date=September 11, 1933|access-date=April 27, 2010}}</ref>  It was also the title of a popular book by an influential U.S. religious figure, [[G. G. Rupert]], who published ''The Yellow Peril; or, Orient vs. Occident'' in 1911. Griffith changed Burke's original story to promote a message of tolerance. In Burke's story, the Chinese protagonist is a sordid young Shanghai drifter pressed into naval service, who frequents [[opium den]]s and [[brothel]]s; in the film, he becomes a [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] [[missionary]] whose initial goal is to spread the word of Buddha and peace (although he is also shown frequenting opium dens when he is depressed). Even at his lowest point, he still prevents his [[gambling]] companions from fighting.

Literary critic [[Edward Wagenknecht]] places ''Broken Blossoms'' thematically among the works of [[William Shakespeare   |  Shakespeare]] and the ancient [[Theatre of ancient Greece  | Greek dramatists]], “who wrought their material out of sordid material.”<ref>Wagenknecht, 1962 p. 124</ref>

{{blockquote  |  ''Broken Blossom'' might have been merely a subtly lighted, skillfully directed slum melodrama [but] was lifted into a world of aesthetic purity and clarity, so that the audience went away uplifted as well as terrified.<ref>Wagenknecht, 1962 p. 123-124 And p. 119: “...an immense and brooding film…”</ref>}}