D. W Griffith: Father of Film (Episode 3)

[@jennekalundeen8302]

Thank you so much! So grateful! I've been watching alot of DW Griffith's films lately and love these wonderfully done documentaries about his work. I love having a framework and background for the films I'm watching.

[@michaelpalmieri7335]

Neil Hamilton, who had worked for Griffith as an actor, and is interviewed here, played Police Commissioner Gordon on the "Batman" television series from the mid-1960s. I learned that from one of the comments made about his appearance in "America" (1924), when it was shown on KZbin a few years ago.

[@TheHellomypeople]

"Just 4 days before the premiere Griffith got the snow he prayed for" it's amazing how fast the production was back then

[@darthcheney7447]

Pretty much forgotten in the 21st century. D.W. represented film as high art. What was created was the studio system. Now in Hollywood, your only as good for the amount of revenue you generate for the studio. Excellent doc from the BBC, as usual.

[@dseanmat]

I have wanted to see this forever! Thank you so much for sharing this.

[@laddiemeadows1156]

The silent film scenes are still captivating.

[@chandrashekhara.k.1928]

I am not sure that D W Griffith was a racist. He was a decent, honest, polite gentleman and humanist if his films on Indians, Blacks, Chinese and other ethnic groups are seen today. His humanism at times appears perhaps a bit misplaced. As a Southerner from Kentucky, he sided with the Southerners more out of a sense of regional loyalty rather than as one who supported slavery or owned slaves unlike the founding fathers of America like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, who advocated liberty and equality and owned slaves at the same time. He was such a perfect gentleman that he expected the world and all its members to be as gentle as he was talking their walk and walking their talk without contradiction and didn't see the justice of Sherman burning Atlanta down and all else between Atlanta and the sea as well in the name of fighting Southern slavery and slave owners and Union officers and soldiers burning, looting and much else far worse in their fight against the Confederacy. He has not directly supported slavery and has often shown in exaggerrated decency of Southerners towards their domestic black servants but can be validly accused of turning a blind eye to the worst practices followed by Southern landed gentry towards their black slaves. He definitely had a very fair heart in seeing the good in an adversary or a stranger of a different ethnicity. Above all, he was a great artist of the films and the first one at that in America and among the first great ones of the medium in the world as well. In any case it can be said of him that his strengths as an artist were far too great to be sullied by his minor failings to any significant extent. Above all he was a whole man who largely lived with no contradictions. Hats off and three cheers to DWG ! The 3-part documentary posted on DWG is simply great and does full justice to the man and his artistry and his works will always be evidence of his great personality and works in the illustrious annals of the liveliest art of them all, films.

[@sled_dog]

Under appreciated genius.

[@luissamanamud6578]

Amazing documentary!! Without a doubt the best about D.W. Griffith. I would like to point that Millet's Angelus reference in the composition on minute 25:25 , so beautiful. Thanks for the upload!!

[@GetBenched2010]

I am very glad this doc series exists. It proves that no, Birth of a Nation did NOT destroy Griffith. He had a sizeable career after that. Orson Welles said it best: "I never truly hated anything about Hollywood except for how they treated DW Griffith."

[@myname7056]

Griffith, from a humble Australian in her 30s to you, thankyou.

[@johnclarke5459]

The final "words" in ' Isn't Life Wonderful" by the two potato stealers: "Beasts we are and beasts you made us!' should have been given some mention,

[@stephenoconnor9904]

What a truly wonderful man D.W.Griffith must have been. I Truly remember the 1st time I swathe birth of a nation and even though it took a good 3 or so hours long to sit through, it was well worth watching particuarly concidering it was made way back some 104 years ago (1915).

[@gypsylily2949]

@@Obscure437 Well then you would be wrong wouldn't you?

[@valerieliger9574]

C'est juste incroyable ! Merci pour ce partage ! 😚💖💐😘

[@rosemaryfranzese317]

Griffith was besotted with Carol Dempster and they were in an off scene relationship. Hard to see what he saw in her but she was ideally cast in”Isn’t life Wonderful”.

[@BSNFabricating]

This is a great documentary. I have no interest in the movies made today, but have always loved classic movies, and find the early years, the silent era, etc, especially fascinating. All that said, when they talk about the movie "America", I just thought that it must be just a LITTLE bit awkward for a British narrator to talk about the Revolutionary War from the American point of view.

[@vincentsartain3061]

Modern British are for the most part sympathetic to Colonial Americans and the cause of "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" for which they fought. But even in those days on the other side of the pond, the common British people were sympathetic to the Americans, which is among the reasons that the British campaign to bring the Colonies back under subjection had failed.

[@Count1jt]

D.W. Griffith is the greatest filmmaker that ever existed.

[@altanaeliza]

He would've been happy if he stayed with Lillian Gish

[@kentonclarkson1449]

Great doc but did the narrator wrap his microphone up in a towel?

[@Zombie81212]

very scuffed quality lol

[@Bigbadwhitecracker]

Hollywood sucked then and it sucks even more now.

[@b.deville3236]

Maybe that's why most of Griffith's movies were made in New York.