9. Broken Blossoms
If you can ignore the casual racism, Broken Blossoms is definitely worth a look in. After DW Griffith dealt with the firestorm of controversy from The Birth of a Nation, he was determined to prove to the world once and for all that he wasn't a racist. And bless him, he really tried. His first effort was the tremendously long Intolerance, which spanned several hundred years of time to depict different instances of intolerance. For Broken Blossoms, he focused his efforts on just one simple story line, that of a jaded, opium-addicted Chinese man who sets out to help a girl who is abused by her father. Yes, the Chinese character is played by a white man in a skullcap. Yes, he is affectionately addressed as "Chinky", and yes, he is an offensive stereotype. But it's done with the best of intentions. DW Griffith is sort of like everyone's racist grandfather who you almost can't blame because he grew up in a different era and doesn't know any better. And to be fair, the decision to depict any kind of interracial relationship, explicit or not, was remarkably ahead of its time. Lillian Gish turns in one of the best performances of her career, as the helpless girl who broke audience's hearts with her sad little smile.