A 20-year nap that changed America — silent film style, no alarm clocks allowed.
Rip Van Winkle, a lazy American man, wanders off one day with his dog Wolf into the Kaatskill mountains where he runs into an odd group of men drinking and playing bowls. He drinks some of their mysterious brew and passes out. When he wakes up under a tree he is astonished to find that 20 years have passed and things are a lot different. This is a charming story about how America changed due to the cival war, only in a different and more subtle way than ever told before.
Acting
Thomas Jefferson's fourth time playing Rip — he owns this role.
Production
Hand-painted tinting brings the Kaatskill mountains eerily alive.
Director
Edwin Middleton
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was actually the second film version of 1914 alone — Fox released a competing adaptation starring stage legend Joseph Jefferson's son.
Washington Irving's 1819 story originally satirized colonial loyalty; this 1914 version silently rewrites it as Civil War anxiety, letting audiences project their own national trauma onto Rip's blank slate.
US
