A brother, a sister, and a friend all battle against the deadly disease of tuberculosis.A brother, a sister, and a friend all battle against the deadly disease of tuberculosis.A brother, a sister, and a friend all battle against the deadly disease of tuberculosis.
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Did you know
- TriviaProduced in cooperation with the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Edison: The Invention of the Movies (2005)
Featured review
Flashback to Pandemic Past
The third of pictures made by the Edison Company with the Red Cross and the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (now the American Lung Association), along with "Hope" (1912) and "The Temple of Moloch" (1914), that I've seen now, "The Lone Game" demonstrates how far American filmmaking had come in just three years. This one is far more polished than the other two and from the start, too, with the opening of an iris medium close-up that is matched with a subsequent longer shot. Arguably, there are too many iris shots, but this was common during the era--maybe because of the fondness for them by D.W. Griffith's cinematography Billy Bitzer. Anyways, there's also a flashback sequence as told by a character to another. It sets up a triptych outbreak of three tuberculosis cases. And, if the story weren't telling enough as to the picture's message, the film concludes with a lecture-within-the-lecture of an audience purchasing the Red Cross Seals to contribute to the anti-TB charity. The scene takes place during the charitable Christmas season, which also happened to be when these films were released.
I've been reviewing these films to look back at past pandemics while living during the current one in 2020. This one in particular contains an always-timely message regarding wealth and the treatment of illness; the inequality of which is only overcome by such charity, as we see in the fates of the three characters in the film. Although I have my doubts as to the efficacy of the treatment here of being read and fed to while lying in an open-air bed, but, then again, this was decades before antibiotic interventions were discovered. Besides disparity in treatment based on wealth and generally uncertain medical care without a real cure, if that weren't prescient enough of today's pandemic, one of the unfortunate characters is even prescribed a counterproductive medication for malaria.
I've been reviewing these films to look back at past pandemics while living during the current one in 2020. This one in particular contains an always-timely message regarding wealth and the treatment of illness; the inequality of which is only overcome by such charity, as we see in the fates of the three characters in the film. Although I have my doubts as to the efficacy of the treatment here of being read and fed to while lying in an open-air bed, but, then again, this was decades before antibiotic interventions were discovered. Besides disparity in treatment based on wealth and generally uncertain medical care without a real cure, if that weren't prescient enough of today's pandemic, one of the unfortunate characters is even prescribed a counterproductive medication for malaria.
helpful•10
- Cineanalyst
- Sep 18, 2020
Details
- Runtime16 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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