Tol'able David (1921)

If you already know the ending of this film, the early scenes feel different.  Richard Barthelmess was 26 when this film released, and his character David is 18.  David wants nothing more than to be seen as a man, not a boy.  In light of all this, the way the beginning of the film depicts him as a child at play comes across as a punchline at his expense.  But when you anticipate the crisis he goes through in this film, they look more like elegies to lost innocence.

Tol'able David is about David, his family, and the rural town where they live.  The neighboring household consists only of David's friend, Esther Hatburn, and her grandfather.  Three dangerous criminals arrive and invite themselves to stay at the Hatburns' home.  The criminals happen to be Hatburns as well, distant relatives, but their presence is tolerated out of fear rather than any familial obligation.  Their stay in town causes all kinds of misery.

A couple little touches early on stand out just for how charming they are.  One involves a scene where David meets with Esther by a river and catches a trout.  He says he doubts any man in the county could snare a trout like that.  His grandstanding is hard to take seriously, especially when Esther tells him "you're right tol'able...for a boy."  But later, Esther repeats to her grandfather that no man in the county could have snared a trout so well, apparently perfectly impressed by David's performance.  

Another comes after David's older brother has his first child.  David jumps on his brother's wagon while it's in motion to tell him that the newborn is a boy and weighs 10 pounds.  A bit later, as his family celebrates their new member with cigars and drinks—which they don't let David have—he goes outside and sees Esther.  At this point, the criminals have already invaded her household, and they talk about it.  David promises to protect her, but she doubts he could handle them.  After she leaves, he looks a little dejected.  He's still seen as only a boy.  But when a wagon passes on the nearby road, he smiles and calls "Hey!  It's a boy and weighs 10 pounds!"  Even after all that, and after being left out of the celebration, he still wants the world to know about his new nephew.  

David's journey to adulthood follows as the conflict between his family and the criminals escalates.  In David's household we see the warm companionship of private, domestic life, but the Hatburns' invaded home shows us its fragility and reliance on opening up to a community beyond the family.  While David's family life leads him to greater status and responsibility, Esther needs to escape hers.  She needs both literal and figurative escape; she's trapped both by the people invading her home and by her family's stained reputation.  

The battle between David and the criminal Hatburns turns out to be a real life-or-death struggle, rendered with fear and aggression.  The most dangerous of the villains towers over David, evoking of the story of David and Goliath, the namesake of this film and its main character.  The impact of their brutality lingers into the film's very last moments.  This film shows a great affinity for its rural setting and finds fulfillment for David in assuming the same family and community roles that put his father and elder brother in good standing.  Some viewers might find this film parochial because of that, and they wouldn't be entirely wrong.  But again, Esther's plight stands opposite to David's.  And the film's insistence on showing violence to its very last moments serves as a reminder not only of the vulnerability of everything David's new position calls on him to protect, but how demanding it is for any one person.