D.W. Griffith - Years of Discovery 1909-1913
Dollar for dollar,D.W. Griffith: Years of Discoveryis one of the finest DVD sets ever produced. A must-have for students and scholars of early film, this two-disc, 22-film collection offers a comprehensive primer on Griffith's innovative filmmaking for American Biograph in the years prior to his epic 1915 masterpieceThe Birth of a Nation. Combined with extensive commentary by noted film historian Russell Merritt, each of these films represents some kind of advancement for Griffith and the art of cinematic storytelling, from the sympathetic (yet still stereotypical) depiction of Native Americans (The Redman's View, 1909) to Griffith's fullest embrace of the burgeoning Western genre in 1914's ambitiousBattle at Elderbush Gulch. In the intervening years, Griffith would refine his pioneering use of parallel editing, social protest (in such "film editorials" as 1909'sA Corner in Wheat), flashback structure (The House of Darkness, 1913), and Freudian subtext (The Painted Lady, 1912).These films also chart the progression of stellar personnel drawn to Griffith's prolific mastery. Future comedy king Mack Sennett appears in 1909'sThose Awful Hats; silent film legends Lillian and Dorothy Gish began their 10-year collaboration with Griffith in 1912'sThe Unseen Enemy; andThe New York Hat(1912) was written by legendary screenwriter Anita Loos. Most of the Griffith Biographs were shot by Griffith's pioneering cameraman G.W. "Billy" Bitzer, and other silent-era favorites (Blanche Sweet, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore) can be seen among the casts. More importantly, these cinematic milestones represent the cream of Griffith's massive 450-film crop for Biograph, eliminating any doubt that he was the supreme innovator of fiction filmmaking. What's more, they remain as entertaining as they are historically significant, making this collection a bona fide treasure.--Jeff Shannon