Every Decade Of Cinema - Ranked

11. 1910s

Notable films: The Birth of a Nation; The Homesteader; The Vagabond; The Immigrant; Intolerance; Tarzan of the Apes; Frankenstein.

These were the early days of film. In WWI, the European film industry was destroyed. Meanwhile, the American film industry relocated from New York to California, setting up shop in LA.

WB released their first film in 1918, and United Artists was formed in 1919 (the brainchild of Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford). Chaplin appeared in over 70 films this decade.

D. W. Griffith garnered praise as one of the most influential directors of his day, pioneering the feature-length film. He also directed one of the most consequential, reprehensible films of all time: 1915’s The Birth of a Nation. This was the film that partly led to the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States, gifting them not just the idea for their white hoods, but an enthusiastic reception among white Americans who lauded the film. It’s a shame that this is the most famous film to come out of the decade.

On the bright side, Oscar Micheaux became the first Black man to produce and direct a film when he debuted The Homesteader in 1919.