3. Birth of a Nation (1915)

Directed by D. W. Griffith

Synopsis

It's the story of two families, the northern Stoneman and southern Cameron. The two eldest sons are best friends, who are in love with each other's sister's. They get caught up in different sides of the Civil War. After the war, they reconcile and keep going after their respective love interests. Lincoln is killed. In the South black people take power and Cameron decides to found the KKK. Eventually the government chases the KKK and punishes whoever is making those stupid gowns to death. This leads to the Cameron family being imprisioned, which in turn leads to Stoneman killing a black Unionist. Suffice it to say that in the end all the black forces are routed by the KKK, which saves the day. Each of them marries his intended, and the next elections have the KKK on horseback threatening black voters, next to the ballot boxes.

Review

This is one of those typical cases of love the art, hate the message. The same will happen with Riefenstahl etc.. The message in this film is moronic to the point that the white people come off much worse than any black in the film. And although the hero is the founder of the KKK, their disproportionate use of force would only make him a hero for an audience as racist as the film. Which I imagine was not hard to find in 1915 USA.

So let's put that aside for a moment. Technically the film is great. The huge steps taken since 1903 are gigantic. This now looks and feels, except for the fact that it is silent and has an appaling message, like a modern film. The cutting, editing, framing, close ups, huge battle scenes are all there. It is a three hour long historical epic. I had not watched this film before, and I had no idea that the stage of development was this advanced, this early on. When the hundreds of KKK riders near the end are riding to town, they are seen face on and the camera is riding with them. This is film making at a scale never before seen, and interestingly most of the techniques were invented in this film.

So for all intents and purposes this is the father of modern cinema. Such a pity that the story is the most disgusting propagandist drivel on the face of the planet. But from several accounts, it doesn't even seem that Griffith was that bothered with the message. He was mostly interested in technical innovations. Of course this doesn't excuse him in the least. He could have done those same innovations in a fim which was not all about gloryfing the Ku Klux Klan.

The presence of the KKK is not all that's wrong in this film. The stereotyping of the black characters is horrible. A lot of the black people seem to really enjoy slavery, while the most evil of all are the mulattos, also there is the obligatory nice "Big Momma" and the Uncle Tom character, who of course SUPPORT the KKK! What the fuck?!

Still, it's something everyone should see - firstly, it's not going to convince anyone that the KKK is great. Secondly it is truly a masterpiece of direction.

I streamed this film from Google Video.

Final Grade

8/10 (for its techical merit only)
-1/10 (for its message)

Trivia

from Wikipedia:
Riots broke out in Boston, Philadelphia and other major cities in response to the film's historical distortions, and the film was denied release in Chicago, Ohio, Denver, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Minneapolis. It was said to create an atmosphere that encouraged gangs of whites to attack blacks. In Lafayette, Indiana, a white man killed a black teenager after seeing the movie

Although the film made use of some black actors, some were played in blackface. In particular, any actor who was to come in contact with a white actress was played in blackface. For example, the Camerons' maid is both white and obviously male.

This film is seriously fucked.