Discontent (1916) User Reviews

Entertaining Civil War - Family Drama

[Michael_Elliott · 26 May 2018]

Discontent (1916)

*** (out of 4)

This early film from Universal deals with Civil War veteran Pearson (J. Edwin Brown), a man living at a vet home but he's not overly happy there. He's constantly bragging about his millionaire nephew and he eventually gets to go live with him. At first all seems well but it doesn't take long for Pearson to grow tired of the place and he begins to cause trouble.

Lois Weber will always be best remembered for her great film SUSPENSE but she made a lot of other good ones and that includes this film. At 25-minutes I thought the film did run on a bit too long but at the same time there are some nice performances here and it's certainly a well-made picture. At times I wasn't sure if the film was trying to be a comedy or a drama but in the end I think it mixed both elements quite nicely. To me the highlight of hte film was the performance by Brown who was quite good playing the vet who's just never happy.

Of course, this film was made a year after D.W. Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION so I'm sure its use of the Civil War had a slight influence on this picture.

The Moral: Put the Old in a Home, But Not Yours

[Cineanalyst · 20 March 2021]

This Universal two-reeler, "Discontent," was written but apparently not directed by Lois Weber. Credit, including on Shelley Stamp's Weber filmography, which I'll take over any other internet databases on the matter, and on the credits for the print presented on the Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology set goes to Allen Siegler, whoever he was, as director. Regardless, Weber provides us with a screwy moral for this one. A Civil War veteran and part-time curmudgeon moves in with his millionaire nephew and his family. This leads to the discontent, as the old man sows doubt in the decisions of the family, and he misses his life at the elderly veterans' home. Whoever made this film it seems as though they made it to excuse their being wealthy while putting their elderly relatives in the poor house of retirement facilities. Money can't buy you happiness--that's just nonsense that rich Hollywood filmmakers tell the masses attending their movies.