David Llewelyn Wark ‘D.W.’ Griffith is amongst the first few directors of the American cinema who brought in revolution through his ideas and directorial techniques in the motion pictures of his time. He was born and brought up in Kentucky by his family with an Army background. His father died when he was very young and he had to discontinue his studies to support his family. He started writing plays but he soon discovered that making movies was a more lucrative option and made movies like ‘The Birth of a Nation’ and ‘Intolerance’. Both the movies were highly controversial - former for its negative depiction of black Americans and latter for trying to portray the biasness and prejudices through different historical eras. He made many movies but none of them achieved success like these two and his association with various production houses was dissolved due to his lack of creating commercially successful movies. Griffith was a man of vision and bold ideas and is considered to be an icon from the times when cinema was developing in the US.