The Fight for Freedom is a 1908

1908 in film

The year 1908 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*Thomas Edison formed the Motion Picture Patents Company, with goals of controlling production and distribution, raising theater admission prices, cooperating with censorship bodies, and preventing film stock from getting into the hands...

 Western film probably directed by D. W. Griffith

D. W. Griffith

David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...

. Filimed in Shadyside, New Jersey in June 1908, the film was released on 17 July 1908.

Plot

The film open in a town on the Mexican border. A poker

Poker

Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...

 game is going on in the local saloon. One of the players cheats and is shot dead by another of the players, a Mexican named Pedro. In the uproar that follows Pedro is wounded as he escapes from the saloon. The sheriff

Sheriff

A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

 is called, who tracks Pedro to his home but Pedro kills the sherriff too. While Pedro hides, his wife Juanita, is arrested on suspcicion of murdering the sheriff. Pedro rescues her from the town jail and the two head for the Mexican border. Caught by the posse

Posse comitatus (common law)

Posse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff or other law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon, similar to the concept of the "hue and cry"...

 before they reach the border, Juanita is killed and the film ends with Pedro being arrested and taken back to town.

Attribution to D. W. Griffith

The film is said to be directed by Griffith but the American Film Institute

American Film Institute

The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

 does not confirm this. The Fight for Freedom was released only three days after his first directorial film, The Adventures of Dollie

The Adventures of Dollie

The Adventures of Dollie is a 1908 film directed by D. W. Griffith. It was Griffith's debut film as a director. A print of the film survives in the Library of Congress film archive. The film tells the story of a young girl who, after being kidnapped by a gypsy pedlar, ends up trapped in a barrel...

and only three days before another film attributed to him, The Tavern Keeper's Daughter

The Tavern Keeper's Daughter

The Tavern Keeper's Daughter is a 1908 Action film directed by D. W. Griffith.-Cast:-See also:* D. W. Griffith filmography* List of American films of 1908...

. While the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company

American Mutoscope and Biograph Company

The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1928. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over three thousand short...

 was known for the fast production times of its films it is possible that while Griffith's had a role in the production of the film, it was actually directed by someone else.

Cast

Actor/Actress	Role
Florence Auer Florence Auer Florence Auer was an American theater and motion picture actress whose career spanned more than five decades.-Life and career:...	Juanita
John G. Adolfi John G. Adolfi John G. Adolfi was an American silent film director, actor, and screenwriter who was involved in more than 100 productions throughout his career.-Biography:...
Kate Bruce Kate Bruce Kate Bruce was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 289 films between 1908 and 1931.She was born in Columbus, Indiana and died in New York, New York.-Selected filmography:* The Golden Louis...
Edward Dillon	Member of the Posse
George Gebhardt George Gebhardt George Gebhardt was a Swiss-born American silent film actor. He appeared in 128 films between 1908 and 1922. He was born in Basel, Switzerland and died in Edensdale, New York from tuberculosis.-Selected filmography:...	Man in Bar / Guard
Arthur V. Johnson Arthur V. Johnson Arthur V. Johnson was a pioneer actor and director of American silent films.Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Arthur Vaughen Johnson began as a film actor with the Edison Studios in The Bronx, New York in 1905 in the one-reel drama "The White Caps" directed by Wallace McCutcheon, Sr. and Edwin S. Porter...
Wallace McCutcheon Jr.
Anthony O'Sullivan Anthony O'Sullivan Anthony O'Sullivan was an American silent film actor and director. He appeared in 163 films between 1906 and 1918. He also directed 35 films between 1913 and 1915...	Bartender
Robert G. Vignola Robert G. Vignola Robert G. Vignola Robert G. Vignola Robert G. Vignola (August 5, 1882 - October 25, 1953 was an Italian-born American actor, screenwriter and film director in American cinema. He made a handful of sound films in the early years of talkies but his career essentially ended in the silent era...