Review of The Birth of a Nation (1915) by Michael O — 28 Jul 2009

The first half of the film didn't seem all that dated to me, like something from the late twenties which griffith so inspired. if the film had ended with ben cameron coming home, it wouldn't be nearly so controversial a classic. of course it wouldn't have been called birth of a nation in that case, but death of a nation (if you've seen the film you know what I mean). I also liked the historical facsimiles very much, and the assassination of lincoln was very well done.

Not only is the film's merit degraded because the film goes from being implicitly racist to explicitly racist, but also because the central aspects of filmmaking developed in the first half are not nearly as adept in the second. three loosely related griffith chase scenes (though one was done quite well and surprised the viewer) as part of a convoluted plot basically describes the second half of the film. finally, there are two extremely shoddy allegorical double exposures that end the film (the only parts that are severely dated). add that to the fact that the movie is bigoted in the first place, and you have a very influential but not all that meritous movie.