100% dialogue/ talking sequences were being released in theaters, which contributed to The Wind recording an $87,000 loss. Critical response The Wind is considered to be a classic, and one of Gish's most brilliant performances. It is the last silent film starring Gish, the last directed by Sjostrom, and the last major silent released by MGM. At its time it was simultaneously panned and hailed by American critics, and its late release at the dawn of the sound era contributed to a net loss for the production. However, the film had significant critical and considerable commercial success in Europe. When the film first opened in 1928, many critics panned it. Mordaunt Hall, film critic for The New York Times, for example, was very critical of the film and he found it difficult to suspend his disbelief regarding the special effects and Lillian Gish's acting. He wrote, "Yesterday afternoon's rain was far more interesting than...The Wind,...The rain was real, and in spite of the lowering skies there was life and color around you. In the picture, the wind, whether it is a breeze or a cyclone, invariably seems a sham, and Lillian Gish, the stellar light in this new film, frequently poses where the wind is strongest; during one of the early episodes she does her bit to accentuate the artificiality of this tale by wearing the worst kind of hat for a wind. Victor Seastrom hammers home his points until one longs for just a suggestion of subtlety. The villain's sinister smile appears to last until his dying breath." However, The Wind has gained significant prestige retroactively. The British newspaper, The Guardian, in 1999 reviewed the work of director Victor Sjöström and they wrote, "And in America his three most famous works—He Who Gets Slapped (1924), The Scarlet Letter (1926) and The Wind (1928)—each dealt with human suffering. The Wind is almost certainly the best—a silent classic, revived in recent years by producer/director Kevin Brownlow with a Carl Davis score, which gave the great Lillian Gish one of the finest parts of her career...Sjostrom treats the inevitable clash between Letty and her new surroundings with considerable realism and detail, allowing Gish as much leeway as possible to develop her performance. The entire film was shot in the Mojave Desert under conditions of great hardship and difficulty and this was probably the first 'Western' that tried for truth as well as