Review of The Birth of a Nation (1915) by Jonathan S — 05 Mar 2009

It's a horrible movie in the sense of its ideology. It depicts black people as evil, vicious rapists, and the KKK as a libearting group who unifies a nation, heroes guarding The South from the menance and social disorder that blacks "represented" right after the civil war; completely vilifying an entire race.

The merit of this movie consists in its technical importance for the history of American movies. It was made in 1915 and it goes for 3 hours. It had a great variety of new techniques that are now standard but were first used in Birth of a Nation.

Things like: ornate title cards, its own original musical score, the introduction of night photography (using flares), use of outdoor natural landscapes as backgrounds, use of color tinting for dramatic or psychological effect in sequences; moving and travelling camera shots, total-screen close-ups to reveal intimate expressions, historical references (e.

G. Civil War photographs) as well as impressive staged battle scenes with hundreds of extras (made to appear as thousands). I watched this movie in three parts because it's so long and to be honest I don't recommend it unless you are interested in the history of cinema because like I said before, it's racist, degrading to black people and therefore and obnoxius film.

However, having said all this, it's also one not to be missed.