Review of The Birth of a Nation (1915) by Kevin N — 24 Mar 2012

D.W. Griffith's monumental epic stands now as it did then- as one of the most controversial motion pictures ever created; it is also one of the most technically brilliant. It is a film that inspires hate and ignorance, and it stands alongside Pier Paolo Pasolini's infamous 'Salo' as one of the most potent reminders ever made that film, indeed, can be used as weapon just as easily as it can be used as entertainment.

Here, Griffith rewrites history. In this history, African Americans uprise violently soon after the Emancipation Proclamation, bringing the country to barbaric chaos until the Ku Klux Klan, portrayed as a group of majestic superheroes, put an order to things and control the newly freed race.

At the end of the film, Griffith shows the Klan as they stand in front of the houses of a black community, preventing its people from leaving their homes to vote. Cued music blares triumphantly; peace has been restored.

It is about as ignorant and irresponsible a thing ever put to celluloid. Unfortunately, however, the film has another side to it. It was one of the first feature-length American films, and on a technical level it was a revolution.

Even before Sergei Eisenstein bagan to tinker with the endless possibilities of the montage in relation to storytelling- that is, the manipulation and representation of different spaces and time via editing- Griffith struck gold with his ability to tell simultaneous stories and use the span of many years to tell a single story.

One cannot help but watch in awe at the explosively exciting war scenes that he conducted, the expansive sets, the amount of extras. He had an imagination fit only for the movies, and he knew how to translate this limitlessness to the cinema.

The craft isn't an excuse for the ignorance of the story. In my mind, they stand as two separate lessons. Firstly, though what unfolds on screen is horrible, we must not forget it. This was a mindset that was not exclusive to Griffith during this time, and the fact that it is on film goes to show how important the medium is for recording history- the good and the bad.

Secondly it is a testament to the birth of cinema, and the fact that even before the invention of cinema, there were minds ready for it. Griffith's ability to craft detailed visual plots stems brilliantly from forms of expressions that human beings used long before the camera, from painting to song.

It is an important film- one of the most important films- and it needs to be seen by anyone interested in film or history or Anthropology or myth making; just don't expect it to go down easily.