Considered by many as the father of film, director, producer, screenwriter, and actor David Wark “D.W.” Griffith was a pioneering, yet controversial, creative force in early Hollywood. Griffith is credited with inventing or popularizing many foundational cinematic narrative techniques, and he was arguably the most important director in the Hollywood film production of the early 1900s. 

The contributions that D. W. Griffith made to the film industry were determined and analyzed by examining several sources: D'Ooge, Craig. “The Birth of a Nation: Symposium on Classic Film Discusses Inaccuracies and Virtues.” Library of Congress Information Bulletin, June 27, 1994 – Vol. 53, No. 13; Schickel, Richard. D.W. Griffith: An American Life. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984); and Stokes, Melvyn. D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation: A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

In is difficult to make an analytical comparison of  D. W. Griffith to other film-makers of his time since Griffith is widely considered as the most important filmmaker of his generation, pioneering the feature-length movie. Before Griffith, films were no longer than one reel. At the highpoint of his career he screened his films for American presidents and for the working class as well. Griffith’s films became part of history in unleashing the power of movies as a catalyst for social change. More than any of his contemporaries, D. W. Griffith realized that film could be used to communicate ideas. 

Griffith grew up in rural Kentucky, the son of a former Confederate Army colonel who died when Griffith was ten years old. He was raised as a Methodist and educated by his older sister, Mattie, in a one-room country school. His family experienced hard times after his father died. At age fourteen, Griffith’s mother abandoned the farm and moved the family to Louisville, Kentucky where she opened a boarding house, which failed shortly after. Griffith left high school to help support the family.

 His career in show business began when he moved to New York City in 1907 and was cast in a short film co-directed by American film pioneer Edwin S. Porter, Rescued from an Eagle's Nest. However, Griffith's passion was being a filmmaker. In 1908, he co-directed his first film, The Adventures of Dollie, for the Biograph Company, one of the earliest film production companies. Griffith began shooting a film every week for the company and eventually worked for the Mutual Film Corporation, later starting his own studio, named Griffith Studio.

Perhaps Griffith's most famous film was the 1915 production The Birth of a Nation. It was based on the 1905 play The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr., which Dixon adapted from his novel The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan. The story depicted the Ku Klux Klan as heroes fighting poorly-educated violent blacks. From a technical standpoint, The Birth of a Nation was a groundbreaking film for numerous reasons. It was the first 12-reel film and was the first film that many moviegoers saw that contained techniques like close-ups and fade-outs. It was one of the first feature films to be distributed with a full-length sheet music score intended for the film's screenings. The epic length and scope of the was ground-breaking for its time.

The film’s portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan and blacks resulted in Griffith being accused of racism. Despite attempts by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to have the film banned, it was highly successful at the box office. The Birth of a Nation was censored in many cities, including New York City, and Griffith became an ardent opponent of censorship of the motion picture. Griffith joined with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin in 1919 to form the United Artists company.

While critics and film scholars still acknowledge The Birth of a Nation as a groundbreaking film from a technological and artistic standpoint, its contributions to the craft of cinema have been overshadowed by its racism content and glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Even with all the controversy and criticism, The Birth of a Nation was considered a ‘blockbuster’ and held the record for the highest grossing film of all time until the release of Gone with the Wind in 1939. It is not known exactly how much The Birth of a Nation earned, but some estimates place the number at between $15 million to $18 million. It today’s money, that would place the earnings at between $237 million to $284 million. While D. W. Griffith’s reputation remains tied to the racism of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith directed over 450 films with six of his films preserved by the U.S. National Film Registry, including The Birth of a Nation. Even with the controversary that surrounded his life, D. W. Griffith was a significant person in the 1900 to 1929 period and an economic influencer in the film industry.