D.W. Griffith: An American Life

This was a very, very dry read. It took me quite a while -- a hundred pages or more -- to really get into this book, and even then it became something of a chore to finish it. The amount of detailed, intricate information on the life of D.W. Griffith is, at times, so detailed as to be mundane, while at other points it seems to skip over large spans of Griffith's life with little more than a footnote.

Much of the lapses in biographical information can be attributed to D. W. Griffith's fondness for personal myth making and the lack of verifiable facts surrounding parts of his life. There simply isn't any kind of record as to where he was or what he was doing during certain times in his early life and career.

The author tends to intersperse show more the biographical material with loads of encyclopedic information on various productions -- work records, props, camera setups, and other details more aptly suited for a filmography index than a biography -- as though he were so happy to have found any information at all after coming up empty for other less documented periods of Griffth's life that he just couldn't bear to leave out the slightest detail. It becomes tedious.

If you're a huge fan of Griffith's work or you are extremely interested in the minutia of early film making then this is the book for you. If you're looking for a casual experience of reading enjoyment then I wouldn't recommend it. show less