Post 1910-1920-2: Silent Film

Below you'll view an early Edison film, the first attempt at syncing sound with moving picture.


While Edison and other film companies avidly experimented with adding sound to motion pictures, film makers pushed the art form of movie making. One famous example is the work of director D.W. Griffith. He is perhaps best known for his production of The Birth of a Nation, a historical drama based on the novel The Clansmen, a celebratory history of the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. While Griffith's social views were in line with the view of many in the early 20th century, his film technique introduced nuanced methods of story telling. Below, one of his earlier films, A Corner in Wheat, demonstrates his developing style. In the film a poor farmer clashes with a richer more powerful "wheat king". The social commentary pushes the capability of moving pictures beyond entertainment and novelty and into the realm of social commentary.