The Birth of a Nation (United Artists) (1915)

“ The most beautiful picture ever put on canvas, the finest statue ever carved, is a ridiculous caricature of real life compared with the flickering shadow of a tattered film in a backwoods nickelodeon." T HE above assertion was made by Dr. E. E. Slosson, of Columbia University in an article entitled “The Birth of a New Art” which was published in the Independent of April 6th, 1914. On April 1st, 1914, David Wark Griffith, the subject of this sketch, set to work laying the ground plans for a great picture which has since been introduced to the world under the name “The Birth of a Nation.” Neither Dr. Slosson nor Mr. Griffith knew of the other’s mental processes. While one was pro¬ claiming the dawn of a new era the other was at work upon the long looked-for American play. It is rare to find prophesy and fulfillment so closely linked together. No discussion of the relationship of motion picture art to contemporary life can be complete without a knowledge of what D. W. Griffith has done to develop and enlarge the artistic standards of motion photography. There is in his work a distinctive touch of individual craftsmanship; an all embracing attention to detail which has come to be known as the Griffith art. No form of expression seeking to reveal the truths and beauties of life has ever made such pro¬ gress within a given lapse of time as motion photography. Perhaps this is because motion is the es¬ sence of realism and life itself is but a part of the impulse of the universe, motion. In developing the dramatic possibilities of the screen dramas Griffith has shown that he is not only a poet. He is a master technician. His accomplishments are the major part of the history of motion pictures in America. He is the creator of practically every photographic and dramatic effect seen today. He is responsible for nearly every innovation of the past decade. He was the first pro¬ ducer to bring rhythm and perspective into motion pictures and make them the background of his story. Griffith’s poetic imagination stretches across dreamy dales, through swaying trees, back to dis¬ tant mountains with their snow crested tops blazing in the sunlight, it reaches across the lapping waves of a deep blue sea to what seems the end of the universe. From one of these far away vistas he brings forth a young girl and shows her progress until she comes so close you see a tear drop quiver on her eyelid before it falls to her cheek. This you see so clearly that through her eyes you read her innermost emotions. It seems almost too intimate, too realistic. And then in a flash you see great plains and on them nations grappling in their death throes and worlds battling for military supremacy. Such sequences and multiplicities of action appear quite simple now, yet they had to be carefully thought out. We say with pride that an American invented the technique required to produce them. When Griffith began directing picture plays the idea of showing human beings otherwise than full length was regarded as rank heresy. He created the “close up.” When he first photographed the faces of his actors, withholding everything not essential to the needed effect, audiences that now ap¬ plaud, showed their disapproval by stamping their feet upon the floor. Critics said his characters did not walk into the pictures, but swam in without legs or arms. He next conceived the idea of the “switch back.” By this device he shows a character under certain circumstances and the next instant by switching the action back to something seen before he makes you see what the character is thinking of. An improvement upon the original idea he accomplished by the slow fading in and out of mystical or symbolic figures which make you see what other characters are thinking of, thus avoiding the harsh jumping from one scene to another which had been the rule before. While Griffith was making these mechanical improvements he was keenly alive to the needs of improved screen acting. No ten other men in America have developed so many film favorites. He is a born director of people, and can discover latent talent in a camera recruit quicker than any other