D. W. Griffith

A profoundly influential and controversial film, this is the epic story of two families, one northern and one southern, during and after the Civil War. D.W. Griffith's masterful direction combines brilliant battle scenes and tender romance with a vicious portrayal of African-Americans. It energized the NAACP and also inspired African-Americans to move into filmmaking as a way to offer alternative images and stories.

A departure from the historical super-productions for which he was known, The struggle was an intimate drama of an American everyman who falls victim to the debilitating affliction of alcoholism. No stranger to the destructive influence of drink, Griffith pulls no punches in dramatizing its potential horrors, especially in the terrifying climax when Jimmie, tormented by delirium tremors, attacks his young daughter (Edna Hagan) in the hovel that was...

D. W. Griffith reached a pinnacle of expressiveness in this tender yet tragic tale of love and suffering in the seedy Limehouse district of London. Richard Barthelmess gives a sensitive portrayal of a Chinese man who travels to England to spread the pacifist teachings of the Orient, but it is Lillian Gish who illuminates the screen. In this, the most heart-rending performance of her career, she plays a fifteen-year-old street urchin who longs to escape...

Impoverished Anna Moore lives in a New England village with her elderly mother. Anna sets out to petition her wealthy city-dwelling Aunt Emma for help. At Aunt Emma's Anna meets rich, idle, womanizer Lennox Sanderson, who uses a mock marriage to compel her surrender to his seduction. When Anna announces that she is pregnant, the cad reveals the truth then deserts her. Anna's baby dies, her mother passes away. Abandoned and orphaned she finds refuge...