D.W. Griffith (1875-1948) was an American film director whose techniques fundamentally shaped early cinema. However, his experience derived from theatrical stagecraft and Civil War era battles. When he attempted to film the First World War, he found modern warfare had become invisible to traditional observation.
Griffith’s failure to adapt to mechanised warfare’s new forms exemplified cinema’s broader crisis in representing industrial conflict.
Related: war-and-cinema, Paul-Virilio