Although it is relatively simple, this short feature is a decent example of how some pretty good story-telling can make a movie work better than the material itself would suggest. The film shows a fairly simple (though dramatic) situation on a beach, but by showing two parallel stories that led up to it, the movie creates a little more interest and suspense.
Using relatively extensive cross-cutting, "Where the Breakers Roar" starts with a group having fun on the beach, while nearby a mental patient escapes from his guards. The seaside scenes create a believable atmosphere, and the chosen title for the film suggests that this was meant to be an important feature of the story. There is not really all that much action until nearer to the end, but the cross-cutting does work in building things up. It still remains a little flat, because the characters remain non-descript, so that you never get used to caring about them very much.
It's at least average, or a bit above average, for the time and genre. With a little more development of the stories and/or characters, it could have been quite good, since the story-telling technique itself is good. It was not long before Griffith learned how to make you care about his characters, to increase your interest in his stories about them.
Using relatively extensive cross-cutting, "Where the Breakers Roar" starts with a group having fun on the beach, while nearby a mental patient escapes from his guards. The seaside scenes create a believable atmosphere, and the chosen title for the film suggests that this was meant to be an important feature of the story. There is not really all that much action until nearer to the end, but the cross-cutting does work in building things up. It still remains a little flat, because the characters remain non-descript, so that you never get used to caring about them very much.
It's at least average, or a bit above average, for the time and genre. With a little more development of the stories and/or characters, it could have been quite good, since the story-telling technique itself is good. It was not long before Griffith learned how to make you care about his characters, to increase your interest in his stories about them.
