D. W. Griffith - One is Business, the Other Crime

Griffith's racism and nostalgia for the pre-Civil War South make him appear to us as an extreme reactionary. But like many conservatives, he was also a populist. In this film, he takes the radical stance of comparing the activities of bankers and investment houses to theft. Significantly, he uses the essential language of cinema to cut back and forth between two opposed scenes, making the audience confront the comparison in ways that may cause them to change their view of society. This technique was later employed crucially by leftist filmmakers in Germany and the Soviet Union, and became the essential element in political filmmaking. But they were borrowing from Griffith.