Review of The Birth of a Nation (1915) by Henrik S — 17 Jun 2009

Holy Moses, what a ride ! The (controversial) masterpiece and mother of all American films. This movie, directed by profilic director D.W. Griffith is a milestone in cinema history. The cinematography, editing, acting, pace, narrative etc.

are all astonishing and there has not been a single epic movie since that did not learn its tricks from this movie.Yet, the movie is a very controversial one. The depiction of white supremancy is grizzly and hard to swallow.

Besides being utterly inaccurate for a movie that is supposed to be a historical account, Griffith has been accused of portraying black peope as either stupid servants or savage beasts that kill, rape and pillage, while the white people are noble and just.

While it is to my strong belief that people that go to war and are involved in a war are indeed nothing but stupid followers and servants of vile men, doing nothing but to kill, rape and pillage - that shameful face of humanity is not reserved for any particular race or class.

No matter if you are white, black, yellow, green or purple, as long as you are a human, the beast is not far away, it is right inside you, domesticated and luring to find its way out as soon as chance has it.

It is a shame that Griffith seemed to be convinced that savagery and cruelty is a trait of an particular skincolor, which is of course ABSOLUTE RUBBISH !On the other hand, people who condemn this sort of racist movie as a thing of the past are mistaken.

Nearly every American movie I have ever seen is filled up with racists stereotypes, depicting foreigners as primitive, illoyal, untrustworthy, uncultivated etc. So if you think Birth of a Nation is merely a cultural relic of an ancient white vision, than you should carefully observe the racial stereotypes that have been assimilated into our society by a slow injection through mass media.

Still, the movie is awesome when seen as a narrative and the depicted horrors, while very singulary portrayed, are very true.and for Lilian Gish - No words could ever do her justice.H.I would recommend this movie if you are interested in media and/or movie history.