Review of The Birth of a Nation (1915) by Chris W — 17 Jun 2009

My rating is heavily inflated, becaue I'm not letting my personal feelings override the importance of this film. Yeah, I know this film is racist, and controversial,(even by today's standards).

Yes, this film is pushing 100 years old, and being that dated, it really shows. Yes, this film is propaganda, and yeah, I recognize that it purposely gets hiistory wrong to make its point. I didn't inflate it for these reasons.

None of what I mentioned so far bothers me. I accept it. What bothers me is that this film is overrated, and I gave up doing a lot to make myself watch it. I've seen far longer films, but this is really pretty boring a lot of the time.

True, there are some really neat war scenes, and some exciting stuff later on, but a lot of it is really melodramatic and meandering. However, as dated, racist, and boring as this movie is, it is still great.

It is an important film. For it's time, it was really innovative, and for the longest time, the film was extremely influential. How influential this film still is is something unknown to me, but hey, it's 2009 and I was compelled to watch it, so I guess that counts for something.

The film, as I said, is innovative. For a product from 1915, I was impressed with how it was all pulled off without advanced special effects or CGI. Being that it's a silent film, music is crucial, but even then, I found the use of the music to go above and beyond at times in terms of the effect it was suposed to have.

Unfortunately, this film will offend and/or bore most people who watch it. I've admitted it, but even then there are still some things about it that are aesthetically pleasing (and I'm ignoring the fact that the film is racist propaganda-I'm not a hater, so don't think that).

Even though this is not a film for everybody, it should still be seen by everybody, if possible, due it's important role in the history of cinema and culture. See, this is one of those times where I let my degree in history influence my decisions, but hey, I did say that I enjoyed some of it in general (and not from a scholarly POV).

Bottom line, put all the racism aside (if you can) and, if possible, see this film. Cinema was never the same after it was released.