Review of The Birth of a Nation (1915) by Christopher B — 10 Sep 2016
A Birth of a Nation is a difficult film to have an opinion about. By its merits, it is a great movie; the vision D. W. Griffith had is like nothing that people had seen up to that point. The battle scenes are great and, for its time, the film has an elaborate plot.
In addition, the theater scene at the end of the first half is simply magnificent. On the other hand, this movie is difficult to watch because of the reasons everybody has mentioned: It is incredibly racist (specially on its second half).
Black men and women are treated as stupid and irrational (evidently, they are the villains of the film), while the KKK members are portrayed as heroes, who even save the damsel in distress from the "cruel hands of the free slaves".
It is no wonder why this film was used as propaganda for recruiting people for KKK. Indeed it is a great movie (and that is the reason for its high score), but its racist overtones are the film's downfall.
This review of The Birth of a Nation (1915) was written by Christopher B on 10 Sep 2016.
The Birth of a Nation has generally received mixed reviews.
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