D.W. Griffith - Years of Discovery 1909-1913 From:Elmer Booth , Lillian Gish , Clara T. Bracy , Walter Miller , Alfred Paget , D.W. Griffith , Image Entertainment ,
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See larger picture. | | Amazon Sales Rank:# 50411 User Rating: Customer Reviews List Price:$39.99 Amazon.com's Price:$35.99 Prices subject to change. You Save:$4.00 (10.00%) Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours |
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0014381127027
Format: Black & White
Format: DVD-Video
Format: Full Screen
Format: Silent
Format: NTSC
Label: Image Entertainment
Audio Format: Dolby Digital 1.0
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
Number Of Items: 2
Packaged Height: 58 hundredths-inches
Packaged Length: 710 hundredths-inches
Packaged Weight: 18 hundredths-pounds
Packaged Width: 542 hundredths-inches
Publisher: Image Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2002-09-10
Running Time: 334 minutes
Studio: Image Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1913-06-14
Product Description:
In the span of five years, pioneering director D.W. Griffith delivered some 450 films for the Biograph Company at a rate of two or three films per week. One and two reels in length, these works showed the filmmaker inventing, borrowing, and perfecting techniques he later used to memorable effect in "The Birth of a Nation," "Intolerance," "Way Down East" and "Orphans of the Storm." But the Biographs were more than that; they helped shape cinematic narrative for generations to come. Plots are simple and direct, revealing an extraordinary dramatic talent of brilliant force, and Griffith assembled the foremost film ensemble of his day, including Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Mary Pickford, Mack Sennett, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Walthall, and Mae Marsh. Among the 22 titles included on this landmark release are such widely recognized masterworks as "The Musketeers of Pig Alley," "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch," "The New York Hat," and "A Corner in Wheat." Collectively, these compact and exciting shorts provide an unparalleled record of American life at the turn of the 20th century.
Customer Reviews:
3 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
A treasure trove, 2008-02-07
Though there is a bit of overlap between this set and the other two-volume set of Biograph shorts, this set does contain six shorts that the other set doesn't. This set also has a big bonus in the audio commentary by Russell Merritt, which is very informative and answers and explains a lot of things. The only downside to the commentary is that some of the films only have commentary for the first few minutes before Mr. Merritt says something along the lines of "See you in [the next short]" or "I'll let you enjoy the rest of the film." A couple of shorts on the first disc are like this, but on the second disc, only the first short, 'The New York Hat,' gets a full-length commentary. I would have appreciated longer commentaries on films such as 'The Mothering Heart' and 'The Battle at Elderbush Gulch,' since their length and complexity are just begging for more historical background and explanatory comments, to add to one's appreciation and understanding of them.
After becoming familiar with his Biograph shorts, I can now say that I far prefer Griffith's shorts to most of his features. The issues I have with him either disappear or are minimised when he's only telling a story in a couple of reels and has to pack all of the character development, plot, and editorial commentary into a set time frame. A number of these early shorts even appear to have Socialist sympathies, what with depicting the plight of the poor and working-class and how they're exploited and treated by the ruling class, such as 'A Corner in Wheat,' 'What Shall We Do with Our Old?,' and 'One Is Business, the Other Crime.' That earns him some major points with me, these films with really progressive social justice issues. There's so much diversity in these shorts--Westerns, gangster films, social commentaries, adaptations of literature, and modern stories. They also feature many talented actors, among them people who became big-name stars, such as Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish. Film-making in the late Aughts and early Teens was a very exciting time, with so much diversity and the medium constantly undergoing so much evolution, and these shorts help to demonstrate just what was so wonderful about early film.
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