Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

MissSimonetta God knows Judith of Bethulia (1914) makes for easier viewing than what is usually regarded as D.W. Griffith's first feature, The Birth of a Nation (1915). On its own merits, this is a decent little film with a good performance from Blanche Sweet in the titular role.The original biblical tale is expanded upon, most notably by adding a subplot with two lovers separated when one is made a captive of the enemy and by having Judith fall in love with Holofernes, the man she is sent to seduce and assassinate. These are good additions, I think, especially the latter. It helps give more depth to the tale and the titular heroine herself.Birth is more ambitious and experimental, but I much prefer Judith. It seems more assured of itself (most likely due to having less scale and running time) and I adore Blanche Sweet, who never achieved the level of stardom she deserved. Plus it's not, you know, horribly racist.

Red-Barracuda The story of Holofernes leading the Assyrians against the Judean city of Bethulia. After a failed attack the Assyrians try to withhold the water supply from the Judeans. Judith of Bethulia is called into action to save her people.This is the first D.W. Griffiths feature film. Indeed it's one of the very first full-length movies. It's a dry run for later Griffith epics such as Intolerance, which also features a biblical attack on an ancient city, in that case Babylon. This film is a lot less grand it has to be said. Watch out for the version available on-line with the abysmally inappropriately jolly score! It's really only going to be of interest to those who wish to delve into the origins of feature film-making. It's a little heavy going otherwise.

drednm The first feature-length film from DW Griffith, JUDITH OF BETHULIA tells the story of a young widow who saves her city (Bethulia) from the Assyrians by an act of treachery.It's a warm-up for Griffith's masterpiece, INTOLERANCE, a few years later but still has merit of its own despite hammy acting and lackluster sets.Blanche Sweet (then 18) stars as Judith and is very pretty but the acting style (it is 1914 after all) is still crude with waving arms and long dramatic poses. Henry B. Walthall is the head of the Assyrian army, Mae Marsh and Robert Harron play the young lovers, Lillian Gish is a young mother, Dorothy Gish is a young cripple, Kate Bruce is the loyal maid, Harry Carey is the traitor.The extras (in heavy makeup) include Lionel Barrymore, Antonio Moreno, Elmo Lincoln, Mary Gish (mother of the stars), and someone named J. Jiquel Lanoe who is quite excellent as the head eunuch.Certainly worth a look but this seems very amateurish compared to what was coming. The film is also famous for going well over budget and getting Griffith fired from Biograph Studio.

Cineanalyst From the Apocrypha story, a poetical tragedy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich and the theatrical version, Holofernes (played by Henry Walthall) leads his Assyrian army against the walled Judean city of Bethulia. The Assyrians decide, after failing to penetrate the wall, to parch the Judeans into submission. Their watering place is located outside the wall. Consequently, widow Judith (played by Blanche Sweet) is inspired to save her Judeans.This was D.W. Griffith's first feature-length film, and it has the constituents of later Griffith spectacles: poetic and theatrical traditions, romance, battle scenes and costly costume and set design. The battle scenes are distant and poorly choreographed, though. Nevertheless, the production went over budget, costing Biograph some $36,000. Accordingly, Griffith's days at Biograph ended here, and he would go on to make better and grander films.For a film by the director who would make "The Birth of a Nation" and "Intolerance", it's surprising that in his first feature-length spectacle, it's the acting and character relationships that are the highlight. Five-feet-seven-inches Walthall manages to portray the large laggard. Griffith is cited to have said, "Well, Wally will play him tall", in defending to the studio the casting (from Schickel's Griffith biography). Sweet does just as well. I think her walking amongst in the last shot was a fitting end.