- In full:
- David Wark Griffith
- Born:
- January 22, 1875, Floydsfork, Kentucky, U.S.
- Died:
- July 23, 1948, Hollywood, California (aged 73)
- Founder:
- United Artists Corporation
- Notable Works:
- “Intolerance”
D.W. Griffith
-
Who was D.W. Griffith?
David Wark "D.W." Griffith (1875-1948) was a pioneering American film director known for developing many basic filmmaking techniques. Between 1908 and 1913, Griffith made over 400 films, introducing techniques such as the close-up, scenic long shot, and cross-cutting.
His films include The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1921). Though his 1915 film The Birth of a Nation was innovative, it also drew significant controversy for its blatant appeals to racism.
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What type of films did D.W. Griffith make?
D.W. Griffith was a pioneering American motion-picture director known for developing many basic filmmaking techniques. He directed over 450 one- and two-reel films in five years with Biograph.
Griffith is credited with directing such films as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), and The Struggle (1931). After The Birth of a Nation caused riots, Griffith became an opponent of motion picture censorship. His film Intolerance (1916) was, in part, an answer to his critics.
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Why is D.W. Griffith considered important in film history?
D.W. Griffith is considered a pioneer in film history for developing many basic filmmaking techniques. From 1908 to 1913, Griffith made over 400 films and refined techniques of motion-picture exposition, like close-ups, scenic long shots, and cross-cutting. His work transformed the film system from its primitive to its classical mode, and he was the first filmmaker to realize film's persuasive power over an audience without print or speech. Griffith brought seriousness and an intensity of vision, making him cinema's first great artist.
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What is D.W. Griffith's most famous movie?
D.W. Griffith's most famous movie is The Birth of a Nation, released in 1915. The film, based on Thomas Dixon's novel The Clansman, revolutionized motion pictures with its radical techniques. It was also the longest movie released at the time, running for nearly three hours.
Despite its artistic and technical achievements, The Birth of a Nation is highly controversial due to its blatant appeals to racism. The film portrays Black people as evil and the Ku Klux Klan as heroic, sparking protests and condemnation. Despite the controversy, it became one of the most popular films of the silent era and had a lasting impact on the civil rights movement.
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How did D.W. Griffith change how movies were made?
D.W. Griffith, a pioneering American director, significantly transformed filmmaking through innovative techniques. During his time at Biograph (1908-1913), Griffith refined or introduced techniques of motion-picture exposition, including:
- Close-ups
- Scenic long shots
- Cross-cutting
He also used fade-outs and fade-ins to mark episode beginnings or ends and framed images using special masks. Griffith's work transformed the film system from its primitive to its classical mode, and he was the first filmmaker to realize that motion pictures could exercise enormous persuasive power over an audience without recourse to print or human speech.
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What controversies are associated with D.W. Griffith's films?
D.W. Griffith's films, particularly The Birth of a Nation, sparked significant controversy for their racist depictions and historical inaccuracies. The film, set during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, portrays the Ku Klux Klan as heroic while depicting Black people in a negative light.
The NAACP led protests against the film, which was also censored in several cities after screenings caused riots. Despite the opposition, The Birth of a Nation became one of the most popular films of the silent era. Griffith responded to the criticism with his subsequent film, Intolerance (1916), which addressed censorship and intolerance, but it was not financially successful.
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D.W. Griffith (born January 22, 1875, Floydsfork, Kentucky, U.S.—died July 23, 1948, Hollywood, California) was a pioneer American motion-picture director credited with developing many of the basic techniques of filmmaking, in such films as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), and The Struggle (1931).
Early life and influences
D.W. Griffith, the son of Jacob Griffith, a former Confederate colonel, was born in a tiny hamlet not far from Louisville, Kentucky. He received his early education in one-room schools, largely under the tutelage of his older sister, and was subject to the strong influence of his father’s imaginative stories of the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War and family readings of the works of Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, and Sir Walter Scott. The family was impoverished upon the death of Jacob, when David was 10 years old. After a brief stay with relatives, the family moved to Louisville. Griffith’s formal education was terminated in secondary school by the necessity of contributing to the family’s financial needs. He became, successively, an elevator operator in a dry-goods store and a clerk in a bookstore. During the latter clerkship, Griffith was exposed to the literati of Louisville and to the actors and actresses who played at Louisville’s Temple Theatre.
Griffith began an acting career with several amateur theatre groups and made his professional debut in small roles with a stock company at the Temple Theatre. A barnstorming career with various touring companies followed, concluding with a Boston engagement in the spring of 1906. Following that engagement, Griffith completed a play, A Fool and a Girl, based on his personal experiences in the California hop fields, which was produced in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1907. The play was a failure despite the presence of Fannie Ward in the leading role. After the closing of the play, Griffith wrote a second play, War, which was based on events that occurred in the American Revolution. This later play remains unproduced.
On the advice of a former acting colleague, Griffith sold some scenarios for one-reel films, first to Edwin Porter, the director of the Edison Film Company, and then to the Biograph Company, both located in New York City. Griffith appeared as an actor in one film for the Edison Company, Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest, photographed by Porter, and in several films for the Biograph Company. When an opening for a director developed at Biograph, Griffith was hired. During the next five years, from 1908 to 1913, Griffith made more than 400 films for Biograph, the majority in the one-reel format, lasting approximately 12 minutes. His first film was The Adventures of Dollie (1908), about a baby stolen by and recovered from Gypsies. During the latter part of his employment, he experimented with longer films; his last Biograph film, Judith of Bethulia (1913), a biblical story of Judith and Holofernes, based loosely on a poem of the same title by Thomas Bailey Aldrich, comprised four reels.
During his Biograph period D.W. Griffith introduced or refined the techniques of motion-picture exposition, including the close-up, a film shot in which a single object or face filled the screen; the scenic long shot, showing an entire panoramic view; and cross-cutting, a technique of editing scenes at various locations together and intermixing them to give the impression to the viewer that the separate actions were happening simultaneously. With the assistance of his brilliant cinematographer, Billy Bitzer, Griffith made effective use of the fade-out and fade-in, a technique in which the screen darkens gradually to black or lightens from black to a full image, to indicate the end or the beginning of the story or of an episode, and the framing of film images through the use of special masks to produce a picture in other than the standard rectangular image. Griffith introduced to the screen young actors and actresses who were to become the motion-picture personages of the future. Included among these were Mary Pickford, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Mack Sennett, Mae Marsh, Lionel Barrymore, and Harry Carey.