Four Sons

A widowed mother and her four sons in a Bavarian village. When the First World War begins, three of them join the German army while the fourth has emigrated to America and goes to war on the other side. She stays connected to all four by letter, and the letters stop one at a time. This is John Ford in the silent era. He tells the war not through the front but through the holes it leaves: empty chairs at the table, letters that do not come, notifications left at the door. What makes it interesting now is that Ford chose to centre a German family in postwar America. In 1928 that was not an easy choice, and the film shows people on the enemy side only as a mother and her sons. Ford was visually influenced during this period by F. W. Murnau working at the Fox studio, and that shows in the lighting and the sets. Who it is for: viewers curious about silent melodrama and early Ford. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the emotional register to match modern taste. The film sets out openly to make you cry and does not disguise it.