9. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
D.W. Griffiths controversial story about the founding of the USA is undoubtedly anachronistic and downright racist by todays standards, yet its legacy in terms of revolutionary cinematic techniques makes it arguably the single most important landmark in the history of US cinema. The first movie to feature elaborate tracking shots, it also introduced the concept of actual night photography (using magnesium flares to light the scene) rather than shooting day for night, as had been done until then. Most importantly, however, it was the first movie to utilize multiple cameras to shoot the same scene simultaneously from different angles. For this last fact alone the film stands as a colossus in the evolution of cinematic technique and so must feature here.