#5 Greatest Director

This is the Zodiac speaking...
Chao buoi sang, Vietnam! I seem to have a follower in the country of Vietnam according to my stats, much obliged. Let us continue then with the latest update of my favorite directors.

#5 D. W. Griffith
This is perhaps my most pretentious post ever. For those of you born after the Great Depression, the one in the Thirties, not the one we are currently in, both this man, and the landmark film he made, should be quite unknown to you. In the idea of full disclosure, just so you all know I'm not one of those film critics with my head up my ass, I'll admit that of the 535 films that Griffith directed between 1908 and 1951, I have only seen one of them. The epic, 1915 silent film, Birth of a Nation, so that's what we'll talk about. The film deals with the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the formation of the group that becomes the film's heroes, the Ku Klux Klan. That's right. I'll repeat, the heroes of the movie are the Ku Klux Klan. Mind you it was made in 1915, an admittedly racist time in our country, so much so that the African American actors, were portrayed by white guys in black face. Stop now before you start thinking that I am a full blown racist, the reason this movie is iconic, is how it was filmed, not it's content. At the time the standard movie was one reel long, and didn't really follow the narrative style that we see in films nowadays, Nation was twelve reels long, and used innovative, at the time, techniques such as cross-cutting through simultaneous events, tracking action, and so on. D.W. Griffith, with his historically inaccurate view of reconstruction, single-handedly changed the way all films after were made. Even with all the flaws in content, this is a must see for anyone who love cinema.
P.S. I want to state her real quickly that this is a 190 minute, that's over three hours to my less math inclined readers, silent film. Iconic, and a must watch for anyone in love with film, but painful as shit to sit through. Only recommended for those of you who, like me, want to see the father of modern films, or if you are really masochistic, and your mother locked up all your knives.
Watch this: The Birth of a Nation
Skip this: I don't know, I've never seen any of his other films