Martin Scorsese names the godfather of American cinema: “The one who started it all”
As far as the New Hollywood era of cinema goes, Martin Scorsese will forever be one of the most important directors to have emerged, his work enduring for decades and becoming a vital point of reference for modern filmmakers.
If you want to make a movie that blends artistry with commercial appeal, you need to look at Scorsese, who has long mastered the art of creating films that are as popular as they are reliable in their brilliance, and while you’re not going to get some special-effects-fuelled slop with no substance from Scorsese, his films draw plenty of eyes nonetheless.
From the moody brilliance of Taxi Driver, its neon-soaked streets creating the perfect background for Travis Bickle’s troubled journey through corruption and decay, to the hedonism-fuelled The Wolf of Wall Street, Scorsese has routinely hit the jackpot.
Without the influence of a legion of filmmakers who came before him, Scorsese might not have ascended the cinematic throne, though. He credits many people as inspirations towards his approach to cinema, from the beauty of Powell and Pressburger, the mentorship of indie cinema legend Roger Corman, and the intimacy of Satyajit Ray’s work – but there’s one filmmaker he considers the godfather of cinema, who stands as the ultimate pillar of influence.
Scorsese’s choice is a controversial one, because the filmmaker he classed as “the one who started it all” is none other than DW Griffith, the man responsible for making the most racist movie of all time, The Birth of a Nation. The filmmaker began making movies when the medium was still in its infancy, pioneering many techniques that, now, we don’t even think twice about. It’s just incredible unfortunate that he chose such a vile topic as the subject of his cinematic experimentations.
His film championed white supremacy and even led to an increase in Ku Klux Klan membership upon its release, yet that hasn’t stopped it from going down in film history as one of the most monumental pieces of cinema ever made, credited for bringing the likes of tracking shots, a special synchronised orchestral score, and close-ups to the screen.
Before The Birth of a Nation, feature-length narrative filmmaking hadn’t exactly taken off, but this was a turning point – blackface and all. It’s a disgusting film that really emphasises the worst and ugliest side of American history, but so many of cinema’s biggest directors admit to being inspired by Griffith’s techniques.
“DW Griffith is the one who started it all, anyway. Quintessentially, it’s the American art form,” Scorsese once said (via Reel Conversations: Candid Interviews with Film’s Foremost Directors and Critics by George Hickenlooper).
Alfred Hitchcock was a huge champion of the filmmaker, too, once telling François Truffaut that “the classical cutting techniques dating back to DW Griffith have stood the test of time and still prevail today, calling him “the Columbus of the screen”. Meanwhile, Werner Herzog called Griffith “the Shakespeare of cinema”.
Somehow, it seems like racism can be excused by many directors, all because Griffiths utilised interesting editing techniques.
