D. W. GRIFFITH AND AMERICAN
SILENT CINEMA
Before and After WWI
PRE-WORLD WAR I
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Europe: Last Days of “A Nervous Splendor”
(Frederic Morton)
U. S.: “The Gilded Age” (Mark Twain)—eye on
money instead of art.
Nickelodeon Era: 10-minute summary of Classics
Illustrated versions of literary works.
http://youtu.be/J-At8OKa_VA
NICKELODEON VS. MOVIE THEATRE
Shows lasted between a half hour and an hour
 Programs included a few one-reel shorts with
some sing-along songs illustrated by hand-colored
lantern slides interspersed between the movies.
 No reason to change: By 1910, ten thousand
attracting 26 million people a week, with gross
receipts for the year totaling $91 million, mostly
from immigrants, working class, or unemployed.
 Environment unappealing for middle and upper
class: converted store-front or dance hall with
warm temperatures and odors. No movie theatre
allowed within 200 feet of a church in 1913!
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NICKELODEON
LEGAL, CREATIVE, AND COMMERCIAL
BUCCANEERING
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Beginning of nickelodeon era: Biograph,
Vitagraph (Edison and Kalem) were leaders and
operated out of New York or New Jersey.
Ten years later: All but Vitagraph were dead and
buried:
By 1908, Biograph had joined Edison’s Vitagraph
with five other companies to form Patents Company
and signed a contract with Eastman for film stock=½
of nickolodeons by 1910.
 Independents who formed Universal and Fox in the
future were being strangled so fought back.
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THE VITAGRAPH COMPANY
INDEPENDENTS MOVE TO HOLLYWOOD
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Independents cut a deal with Lumiere for raw
film.
They prodded the US government to institute
antitrust action against the Patents Company.
Because the Patents Company kept destroying
their equipment, the Independents moved to
California.
Edison and Griffith resisted the changes
Universal and Fox implemented.
UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIFORNIA 1915
DAVID WARK GRIFFITH (1873-1948)
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Made Film an art
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Early life:
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Modest failure as a write and stage actor
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Son of a Kentucky general in the Confederacy who
never recovered after Civil War
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Only 6th grade education
GRIFFITH, CONT.
DW GRIFFITH: TURNING POINT 1907
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Took a job with Edison studios, appearing in
Porter’s Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest
Asked to direct and trained by Billy Bitzer
First film: The Adventures of Dolly—made
cleanly and within budget.
http://youtu.be/cYQCTEYjYDA
ADVENTURES OF DOLLY
D.W. GRIFFITH’S SENSIBILITY
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Romantic
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Influenced by Dickens novels
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Fragile, flowerlike heroines
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Upstanding heroes
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Malignant villains
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No interest in theory behind his efforts but knew
how to make movies work.
GRIFFITH WITH LILLIAN AND DOROTHY GISH
CONTRIBUTIONS TO MOVIES
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The Lonedale Operator (1911):
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contains nearly 100 shots
Took the closeup and began using them as a regular
tool
 Experimented with naturalistic light sources
(fireplaces, windows)
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Used more realistic sets and increased use of
locaitons
 http://youtu.be/p_DIa0SgtuM
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THE LONEDALE OPERATOR
OTHER GRIFFITH CONTRIBUTIONS
The Mothering Heart: technique served his
passion for the gesture that would reveal a
human soul.
 http://youtu.be/7B-SpMqlfrg
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A Corner in Wheat: 10 minutes of perfection, a
canny amalgamation of 2 works by Frank Norris
and photographed by Bitzer
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Parallel editing
Frequent closeups
Superb sense of locations and landscapes
Use of objects to synopsize and define character
http://youtu.be/1AdtplJeGJI
THE MOTHERING HEART
GRIFFITH AND THE ANTI-STAR STARS
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Wanted to avoid paying larger salaries, so
attempted to keep names anonymous.
Stars emerged despite these tactics:
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Mary Pickford (Stella Maris)
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Henry B. Walthall (Birth of a Nation)
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Robert Harron (Birth of a Nation)
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Lillian and Dorothy Gish (Orphans of the Storm;
Birth of a Nation)
THE BIRTH OF A NATION
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Racist adaptation of The Clansmen
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Stonemans of the North and Camerons of the South
(eldest Cameron founds the KKK and protects the
South from blacks and white carpetbaggers)
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An intimate epic?
http://youtu.be/iEznh2JZvrI
Responded to criticism with Intolerance
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Other accomplishments included camera cranes,
cross-cuts, stream-of-consciousness flow like the
mind, spectacle and intimacy.
BIRTH OF A NATION
D.W. GRIFFITH’S DECLINE
Intolerance a Financial Failure
 Only two critical and popular successes after
Birth of a Nation: Broken Blossoms (1919) and
Way Down East
(1920)http://youtu.be/mx7wbYp5izw
 Hamstrung by terminal lack of business acumen:
Mamaroneck studio failed and went to
Paramount
 After first talkie, Abraham Lincoln (1930),
entered an embittered, often alcoholic exile.
 Died in 1948, a “gray ghost on the edges of a town
that could never have been built without him.”
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