A Corner in Wheat

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The father of the American narrative film, D.W. Griffith pioneered film techniques that continue to influence filmmakers. Ably assisted by his long-time cameraman G.W. "Billy" Bitzer, Griffith produced this 14-minute film decrying greed and its consequences. Griffith was inspired by the work of Frank Norris, a novelist best known for "McTeague" (1899) - later adapted as "Greed" (1925), another Registry film. Griffith discovered a trilogy Norris was writing at the time of his death in 1902. Its theme was wheat: how it's grown, distributed and consumed. Griffith achieves a surprising sense of movement from a single stationary camera, and by building drama with the use of intercut images to illustrate comparisons and contrasts. Named to the National Film Registry in 1994.