The Wind 1928

The Wind

1928 · United States · Directed by Victor Sjöström · 95 min

TenseBleak Approachable · Moderate Romance

A young woman arrives on an isolated Texas plain where relentless wind turns social danger into psychological siege.

What to expect

Victor Sjöström makes weather an active dramatic force through movement, dust, exposure, and Lillian Gish’s increasingly strained attention. The film’s landscape is both material and subjective, giving silent cinema one of its most powerful studies of isolation.

How to ease in

The repeated wind effects are not background decoration. Watch how they change Letty’s ability to read rooms, offers of help, and her own fear as the settlement becomes less secure.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes sexual harassment, attempted rape, gun violence, death, burial imagery, isolation, and severe psychological distress.
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A young woman arrives on an isolated Texas plain where relentless wind turns social danger into psychological siege.

I can almost feel the grit before the characters mention it. The wind enters every room and every judgement until Letty has nowhere private to place her fear; that invasion is what makes the landscape frightening to me.

Open the note ↓

I can almost feel the grit before the characters mention it. The wind enters every room and every judgement until Letty has nowhere private to place her fear; that invasion is what makes the landscape frightening to me.

— Momo

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Credits & versions

Version map

MoMA 24fps digital restoration presentation95 min95 minutes is attached only to this named presentation. No edition, score, territory, cut, frame rate, source element, or restoration detail is inferred.Runtime reference · Checked 2026-08-20

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