Kevin Brownlow referred to "The Wind" as "Victor Seastrom's masterpiece."

Lillian Gish . . .

"Working on 'The Wind' was one of my worst experiences in film making. Sand was blown at me by eight airplane propellers and sulphur pots were also used to give the effect of a sandstorm. I was burned and in danger of having my eyes put out. My hair was burned by the hot sun and nearly ruined by the sulphur smoke and sand."

"When we saw 'The Wind' on the screen, all of us, including Irving Thalberg, thought it was the best film we had ever done. But the months went by, and it was not released. I heard rumors that it was being recut. I was called back to the studio, and Irving explained that eight of the largest exhibitors in the country had seen it and insisted on a change in the ending. Instead of the heroine's disappearance in the storm, she and the hero were to be reconciled in a happy ending.

"The heart went out of all of us, but we did what they wanted." (The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me by Lillian Gish with Ann Pinchot, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969)

William K. Everson . . .

"Gish, Hanson and Seastrom were reunited by MGM for 'The Wind,' a strange amalgamation of themes and elements from 'Greed,' 'White Gold' and traditional westerns. A bizarre, shapeless affair, devoid of any real sense of period (even Lillian Gish's costuming seems to exist in a vacuum), it was a monumental example of talent triumphing over scenario. . . The plot, though based on a 1925 story, seemed too old-fashioned and erratic to be taken seriously . . . The atmospheric photography (John Arnold), Seastrom's beautifully underplayed direction (the killing scene was a brilliant essay in suggestion, the whole act of the body falling to the floor being conveyed by a shot of a dust-laden plate jarring and resettling), and the superb control exercised by Lillian Gish over potentially flamboyant theatrics, all represented the silk purse of silent screen art at its peak, despite the sow's ear on which it was squandered." (American Silent Film by William K. Everson, Oxford University Press, 1978)

Jerry Vermilye . . .

"Of her two 1928 movies, 'The Enemy' is among the lost curiosities of the period, while 'The Wind' is an acknowledged classic. Upon release, however, the latter's stark realism and almost unrelieved gloom proved depressing, despite MGM's insistence on a happy ending. Harrison's Reports' hard to please critic called it 'gruesome' and 'irritating to the nerves.' And, admittedly, the naturalistic handling of its prolonged desert wind-and-sand storm continue to have a marked effect on the film's audiences." (The Films of the Twenties by Jerry Vermilye, Citadel Press, 1985)

review . . .

"It is a study of psychological reaction to atmospheric environment, and as such employs cinematic effects in mire abundance than is to be found in the usual photodrama. Its attempt is to be more mature than the average picture, to dwell on mood of scene and state of mind as essentials in plot and to envisage both as forces in the secret springs of action of human beings. . .

"The film shows one bad tendency of our directors and scenarists, its atmospheric chord is twanged too often. In the present case in their anxiety to make the wind felt and heard. . ., they have blown the bellows and shoveled the sand over-long and with too much energy." (National Board of Review Magazine, December, 1928)

Joe Franklin . . .

"Miss Gish's best MGM films, 'La Boheme,' 'The Scarlet Letter,' and 'The Wind,' presented her with strikingly mature roles, in contrast to the innocent and girlish roles which had fallen to her under Griffith." (Classics of the Silent Screen by Joe Franklin, Citadel Press, 1959)

Neil Sinyard . . .

"Seastrom built the tale into a study of frail feminity and turbulent nature, in which a desert storm comes to suggest overwhelming passions that might bury the characters. Not since 'Broken Blossom' had Lillian Gish such an opportunity to exhibit the extreme emotional range of her acting." (Silent Movies by Neil Sinyard, Brompton Books Corp., 1990)

David Robinson . . .

"(Seastrom) was able to work again with Gish on 'The Wind,' a film unjustly neglected, and Seastrom's American masterpiece. The theme was extraordinary; the destruction of a sensitive young girl brought about by alien circumstances. . . Magnificently photographed by John Arnold, the film captures the atmosphere of the prairie - the dust, the wind, the bright, threatening skies. Seastrom's use of visual imagery in 'The Wind' to illuminate the psychology of his characters has never been adequately studied." (Hollywood in the Twenties by David Robinson, Tantivy Press, 1968)

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