A Corner in Wheat

A Corner in Wheat is a 1909 short film by cinema's first great director, D. W. Griffith. This 14-minute film (typical length for a feature of the day) depicts the results of a scheme by an unscrupulous financier to corner the wheat market. The financier makes an enormous fortune while inflicting misery on both the poor farmers who can't sell their wheat at market and the urban poor who can't afford to buy bread.

A Corner in Wheat was a notable turning point in Griffith's artistic development and a harbinger for greater triumphs in years to come. It was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1994.


 * An Aesop: Greed is bad.
 * Art Imitates Art: The shots of the farmer sowing wheat are a nod to Jean-François Millet's painting The Sower.
 * Book Ends: The farmer sowing wheat in the second scene of the film and the last.
 * Camera Tricks:
 * The ending Fade Out.
 * The shot of the farmer sowing wheat that maintains focus on him as he walks toward the camera, turns, and then walks away down the next row.
 * The unique use of a tableau vivant in two scenes by having the actors remain motionless while the camera rolls.
 * Contrast Montage: Constantly cutting back and forth between the financier living the high life and the farmer in despair, or between the financier's lavish dinner and the hungry people who can't afford bread.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * Down on the Farm
 * Downer Ending: For all parties concerned. The farmer, shown in the beginning of the film sowing wheat with the assistance of his father and a plow horse, is working alone in the last shot of the movie.
 * Fade Out: A very early use of this particular camera trick, and maybe the first to use a slow Fade Out to reinforce a particular mood (in this case, the Downer Ending).
 * Fancy Dinner: The lavish dinner thrown by the financier after cornering the wheat market contrasts vividly with the poor people that can't afford bread anymore.
 * The Film of the Book: Plot elements were drawn from two Frank Norris novels: The Pit (cornering the wheat market) and The Octopus (farmers whose lives were affected by Eastern financiers).
 * Laser-Guided Karma: The financier trips and falls into a grain silo and is killed when he is buried by an avalanche of grain.
 * Two Lines, No Waiting: Despite being only 14 minutes long the film manages to tell three separate plot threads--the financier cornering the market, the farmer struggling to grow and sell his wheat crop, and the urban bakery where customers suddenly can't get bread.