D.W. Griffith: An American Life

by Richard Schickel

Book Overview

"This magnificent and important biography...is the best ever written on the man." -The New Republic "Mr. Schickel's excellent and important biography makes it clear that when the movers of our century are tallied, D.W. Griffith, flawed genius that he was, can never lose his eminent position." -Peter Bogdanovich, The New York Times Book Review

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671225960
• ISBN13: 9780671225964
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 672 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

More about Schickel Than Griffith, Sometimes

When I started reading this book, I was advised by a friend that while it is the best book on Griffith thusfar, it is still somewhat superficial. Another friend referred to it as "ponderous." While I gathered my own thoughts during the reading of this 600-page tome, I have to agree with both assessments. Richard Schickel did meticulous research in the years that he worked on this biography (which was released in 1984). He was blessed to have access to people who actually knew and worked with Griffith, all of whom are now gone. Schickel is also a well-known film critic, so he had his "street cred" before the book was ever released. There is a lengthy sections of notes, a filmography and bibliography. The research, and the film criticism, are both blessings and curses from a reading standpoint. An abundance of research without a light hand in the sharing of what's learned can lead to a dry, heavy-handed read. Schickel has moments when he tries to be entertaining as well as education, but we are still treated to long passages regarding stock options and contract clauses. For all his digging however, the information he provides can be frustrating. Clarine Seymour is barely mentioned, while Carol Dempster is discussing in exhausting, annoying detail. Given that Schickel is never able to shed his critic's hat as he writes, the biography is not an objective look at Griffith's work or life. Previous biographers who were sympathetic to Griffith are universally referred to as "apologists," and the reader often feels that the author is viewing Griffith's films by looking down his nose at them. We are treated to opinion offered as fact, such as "so-and-so says, correctly, that ...." Asides regarding silent film in general reflect Schickel's biases about the genre, disappointingly. All in all, I learned a bit about D.W. Griffith in the book. I only wish that it had been presented a bit more objectively.

Griffith: The real man.

D.W. Griffith is by far a fascinating and confusing character in film history. He gets the obligatory nod though Im still sad to say I meet many an aspiring director/writer/actor who doesnt even know the name (dang youth.) If he is known hes 'that old guy who made that racist movie and was in the Klan'. A heavy, and somewhat inaccurate statement (he wasnt aware of his racisim, he wasnt in the Klan, true he was older when he got into film). Many books have been written about Griffith, and many of them took ancedotes at their word. What Griffith said was truth. In fact they overlooked the fact that he was a showman first, and tended to cast history and his legacy as he saw fit. This biography (at a weighty 800 some pages) painstakingly sorts through all this. For instance Griffith didnt go broke on Intolerance (it didnt sell well but he did turn a modest profit), he didnt make Intolerance to recitify Birth (in fact he made it as a dig at the 'moralizers' and busy bodies), he barely made any films involving race, and he wasnt ever really broke (though given his risky business dealings it was always possible). In Whitfield's "Pickford a Woman who Made Hollywood" she says everything Griffith did he did with style. Thats true of how he portrayed his life, how he really lived his life, and even how he died (under the big chandelier of the Knickerbocker Hotel). You can debate Griffith and his work to death, but there is no more authentic, well researched, and well written biography out there then "Griffith: an American Life". I'd like to add despite how dry such a big meaty book could be Schickel tells it an in entertaining way (after rationalizing various reasons Griffith's brother may have turned down a independence saving business move Schickel says of the brother, "Or he may just have been an idiot.") Shickel tries to dig beyond the myth and piece together the real man. I suspect hes succeeded better than anyone ever has and probably ever will.

A Masterful Biography of a Film Pioneer -- Marred by Presentism

This is a lavishly detailed biography of the pioneering film director David Wark Griffith (following the prevailing custom of the time, Griffith typically was referred to by his initials and his last name, hence D. W. Griffith). Griffith is a controversial figure on account of his groundbreaking feature film success, "The Birth of a Nation." The film was set during the Civil War and Reconstruction and revolutionized movie making. Griffith was the son of a last ditch Confederate veteran who served until Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. As a small child, Griffith idealized his father, a gentle ne'er do well, for whom the War for the Confederacy was the singular highlight of his entire existence. When his father died, Griffith was still a child of tender years and this separation only served to romanticize Griffith's memory of his beloved father to a greater degree. The significance of these vivid memories of his parent's storytelling are to be found in Griffith's landmark film "The Birth of a Nation." Key battle sequences in the film are precise recreations of events that Griffith's own father experienced firsthand such as subsisting on parched corn when the Confederates were unable to supply their dwindling army with daily rations. Likewise, Colonel Griffith participated in a heroic battlefield charge quite like the one shown in the film. Ostensibly an adaptation of Thomas Dixon's sensational bestselling novel and the subsequent stage play, "The Clansman," Griffith kept the billing for publicity purposes, but freely reworked the scenario to suit his own preferences. One testimonial to the effectiveness of the drama, to my mind at least, is to see how much of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" simply built upon the structure of Griffith's film. The original was an overwhelming financial success and fixed innumerable cliches about the Civil War in the consciousness of a generation who had only read about the fighting. The movie radically changed the nascent film industry and soon the public demanded more feature length films and exhibitors needed to erect large theaters as the flickers were no longer a novelty to be watched solely in nickle and dime arcades. Theater owner Louis B. Mayer, the future leader of the powerful Metro Goldwyn Mayer studio, financed his entry into Hollywood by underreporting the total box office receipts from "The Birth of a Nation" and shortchanging Griffith of his rightful share of the profits. Griffith was such a seminal figure during the development of the film industry that many of his assistants became celebrated directors after apprenticing under the master. Raoul Walsh, John Ford, Tod Browning, Erich von Stroheim, W. S. Van Dyke and William Beaudine all worked for Griffith. Following the success of "The Birth of a Nation," Griffith staged a lavish four part film entitled "Intolerance" in partial response to efforts to boycott, censor or enjoin the showing of his previous f

a few points of correction.

because this book has been so obsessively researched -- & , largely, that shows-- it is discomfitting to find easily fixed errors in it. i refer, spefically, to the years the author thinks antia loos & lillian gish were born-- not a big deal, perhaps, if the errors were off by a single year, but they are off by closer to 10. lillian gish, terribly important (obviously) in this biography, was around *30*, not 23, when she played the 15-year-old in "broken blossoms." similar mistake as concerns the age of anita loos: she was NOT a teenager when she sold her first script ("the new york hat" or no) to biograph. again, simple & seemingly somewhat insignificant errors, but when this information is so easily checked, & has not been bothered w/, it makes one wonder about the other facts in this book.

A life in 609 pages...

Minutely researched, Richard Schickel really did his homework. Griffith emerges as an intriguing, if not altogether engaging, character. He seems to have been the first to understand what was to become the accepted language of popular cinema. For example, he showed that intercutting two sequences (a house on fire and the approaching fire engine) would not confuse an audience. What I missed was more background in the world surrounding Griffith, Hollywood is so briefly sketched that one is left thinking Griffith worked in a vacuum. But maybe that's the point, he chose not to see how the feature film was developing around him. Schickel lays to rest several myths about Griffith but seems unsure quite what note to strike about his racism. In the end Griffith remains a rather distant character. When Griffith dies on p.604 it's relief and as someone you are intrigued, but not engaged, by you can't help feeling he got what he deserved.