Review of The Birth of a Nation (1915) by Richard D — 05 Mar 2015

Setting aside the heinous subject matter for a second, this is an extraordinary film. There is debate as to how innovative it really was, but that's somewhat beside the point. Even if other films used some or all of it's tools first, it is a magnificently constructed film that feels startlingly modern in the construction of its plot and especially its action scenes.

It's very easy for a modern viewer to miss just how well made it really is since so many of it's tricks are just standard tools of the trade by now. It also has a lot of strangely powerful imagery .

.. Griffith gets a lot of odd and endearing performances from his actors. The huge problem for most viewers will be its subject matter, and they should have huge problems with it. The first half of the film is not bad in that respect.

It offers a very skewed portrait of the Civil War, but there's a fair amount of truth to what Griffith has to say in this first part. There are black characters in this part of the film, but at this point they are not foreground characters and are almost exclusively played by black actors.

They are stereotypes to be sure, but they are the types of stereotypes common in films up until the 1950s. In other words, the treatment of these characters is not good, but it's not outrageously bad.

Not so in the second hour and a half. Griffith's view of the Reconstruction era is, to put it baldly, that white radicals empowered evil black leaders to encourage blacks to forget their proper place and stomp all over the poor white Southerners.

This alone is a pretty hateful position, but when you add the fact that all the major black characters are now white actors in black face playing up every lazy, lustful and conniving stereotype you can imagine, it becomes a lot to ask someone to ignore.

Oh yes, and the Ku Klux Klan are the heroes of this part of the film. It's a magnificently made film that I can't really say in any conscience that anyone should watch.