D.W Griffith: the controversial director that Werner Herzog called the “Shakespeare of cinema”
Known for both his documentaries and narrative features, Werner Herzog is one of the greatest filmmakers to have ever emerged from Germany, sitting high in the ranks alongside names like Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders. The New German Cinema movement began around the time that Herzog started making films, with his first effort, a short called Herakles, being released in 1962.
Since then, Herzog has made some of the most acclaimed movies of the 20th century, from Aguirre, the Wrath of God, to Nosferatu the Vampyre and Fitzcarraldo. His skills have far from faded – in the 2000s, he released several documentaries that have been lauded as some of the greatest of the genre, like Grizzly Man.
Regardless of his success, Herzog has garnered much controversy over the years for his approach to filmmaking, often fostering difficult on-set environments on purpose. Using a documentary sensibility, even when he’s making fictional narrative films, Herzog doesn’t extensively plan out his movies, letting his ideas and events guide him as production progresses. He’s inspired countless filmmakers ever since, such as indie director Harmony Korine, who even cast Herzog in two of his movies – Julien Donkey-Boy and Mister Lonely.
But who has inspired Herzog? In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Herzog shared some of his favourite movies and filmmakers, citing Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon and Tod Browning’s Freaks as some of his most beloved works of cinema. Yet, there’s one director that Herzog went as far as to call the “Shakespeare of cinema” – certainly a bold claim. He was referring to the controversial filmmaker D.W Griffith, who remains one of cinema’s most simultaneously groundbreaking and reviled filmmakers.
Herzog explained, “Everything that Griffith made: Broken Blossoms, Intolerance, Birth of a Nation, you just name it. Everything. He’s the Shakespeare of cinema. Period. Watch his films, and you’ll know instantly.”
Griffith began making movies during the early years of silent cinema, pioneering countless cinematic techniques which have helped to shape the medium. From close-up shots to flashbacks and even subtitles, Griffiths was a vital figure in the development of cinema as a medium for telling complex stories.
Yet, with The Birth of a Nation, the filmmaker managed to make arguably the most racist film in history. His depiction of Black people consisted of white people in Blackface, with the movie promoting white supremacy. In fact, the movie was so racist that its portrayal of the Klu Klux Klan led to an increase in membership in real life, and it even perpetuated hate crimes against Black people.
Griffith occupies a tricky space in cinema history. He is often praised for his contributions to cinema despite the fact that he also contributed to the horrors of racism and white supremacy with his shocking films. Still, that apparently hasn’t stopped many popular filmmakers from expressing their admiration for his work.
Alongside Herzog, people like Martin Scorsese have praised him, who once stated: “Griffith employed focal distance, composition in space, acting tuned to the extreme sensitivity of the camera, movement within the frame and the technique of cross-cutting, among so many other discoveries and innovations, and laid the groundwork for cinema as the art form of the new century in the process.”
Watch a clip from Griffith’s controversial The Birth of a Nation below.