In 1924, cinema was hailed as an agent of world peace. Has it failed?

A century ago, the new artform was welcomed as an harbinger of universal harmony. Although it’s been pressed into service for darker aims since, some of that utopian spirit survives

Exactly 100 years ago, in an article in Collier’s magazine in 1924, the film director DW Griffith made the following prediction: “In the year 2024 the most important single thing which the cinema will have helped in a large way to accomplish will be that of eliminating from the face of the civilised world all armed conflict.” He added: “Pictures will be the most powerful factor in bringing about this condition. With the use of the universal language of motion pictures the true meaning of brotherhood of man will have been established throughout the Earth.”

Leaving aside the irony that’s Griffith’s 1915 picture The Birth of a Nation, a deeply racist film that led directly to the revival of the Ku Klux Klan may have inspired more violence than any other, Griffith’s prophecy of peace and end to national-scale conflicts has not materialised. The violence in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere are all bloody reminders that war is still a fact of life.