DW Griffith films are like proverbs. For every one preaching one point of view, you can find another stating the opposite. The Massacre is, perhaps, the "Too many cooks spoil the broth" to The Battle of Elderbrush Gulch's "Many hands make light work".
Although the framing story is that of a family of white settlers, the central segment showing a seemingly unprovoked raid on an Indian village (an equally viable candidate for the titular massacre) is a different matter. The camera is literally on the side of the Indians, joining them on the hillside as they flee. The cavalry charge is not exciting (and Griffith was more than capable of making it so had he wished), and in both this and the final massacre the mid-shots are mostly of victims being gunned down, whereas the attackers are only shown in distant "god" shots.
The Massacre was Griffith's last two-reeler before he moved onto features (which Judith of Bethulia could be counted as), and there are some good examples of how he is now adept at balancing out a longer story. While the opening scenes are fairly inconsequential, there is a single close-up of Blanche Sweet's baby which not only elicits an emotional response, but also helps us remember the child later on. Later, there is a short scene of some of the settlers playing cards, which seems superfluous at the time, but it pays off towards the end when one of the men is killed, the cards spilling from his hand as he falls. Perhaps most significant of all are the couple of brief family shots from the Indian village shortly before the first massacre, neatly echoing the scenes with the settler family.
Another shot, not as effective but nevertheless remarkable, is of a wolf being frightened off by a bear, just before the Indians attack. It's a rare bit of symbolism from Griffith and while not particularly subtle it was quite a novelty for the time. And it does sum up the message of the picture, the same as that of Fort Apache; that Native Americans, while being traditional antagonists of the Western genre, should never be underestimated.
