The Birth of a Nation
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The Birth of a Nation
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1992.
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The Birth of a Nation, originally called The Clansman, is a 1915 American silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play The Clansman. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods and produced the film with Harry Aitken.
The Birth of a Nation is a landmark of film history, lauded for its technical virtuosity. It was the first 12-reel film ever made and, at three hours, also the longest up to that point. Its plot, part fiction and part history, chronicles the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth and the relationship of two families in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras over several years—the pro-Union (Northern) Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy (Southern) Camerons. It was originally shown in two parts separated by an intermission, and it was the first to have a musical score for an orchestra. It pioneered close-ups, fade-outs, and a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras (another first) made to look like thousands. It came with a 13-page "Souvenir Program". It was the first American motion picture to be screened in the White House, viewed there by President Woodrow Wilson.
Why It Rocks
- Despite all of the film's controversies (we'll get to that), Griffith's great artistry can't be denied. For instance, it ditches the three-act dramatic form of the Victorian stage in favor of a strikingly modern, nonliterary form of narration, founded in an ebb and flow of energy, an expansion and dilation of space, a rush of images and a cascade of emotion that quite clearly go beyond the broken-backed plot, the stereotypical characters, and the melodramatic situations.
- The film also made history as it put an end to a certain kind of popular theater and elevated in its place a medium that had, until then, been largely a novelty attraction headed from vaudeville theaters to sideshows. An industry grounded in one- and two-reelers was transformed within a couple of years into an industry of feature films; storefront nickelodeons grew into lavish movie palaces, and movies became the preferred entertainment to the emerging American middle class. The Birth of a Nation was the first blockbuster in film history. The film's success in America made producers realize that the motion picture business could be profitable and since Griffith (who was an independent filmmaker) had made the film in Hollywood, it led many to follow suit. Of course, the film was preceded by Cabiria in terms of an Epic Movie with a feature-length runtime, but Griffith's use of the medium to portray a setting familiar to American audiences (and in living memory at the time of release) codified it.
- The ground-breaking technical achievements of The Birth of a Nation (cross-cutting, use of close-ups, long-shots, and medium shots to separate action and delineate emotional involvement) are also extremely advanced for their time.
- Vast and detailed set work and background on a large scale, which adds to the film being one of the earliest examples of a true "epic".
- The prolonged skirmish based on the Battle of Petersburg, the burning of Atlanta, and Lincoln's Assassination at Ford Theatre are all remarkable sequences that still manage to be very powerful moments.
- The scene where Ben Cameron, at the climax of the film’s central battle sequence, charges across the field with a Confederate flag raised above his head is very powerful and well done.
- One particular aspect of history the film got right was its portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. The movie rightfully prints him as not being a warmonger, and having a fairly hands-off approach to reconstruction, and his death was seen -- especially by Southerners -- as a great tragedy, partially because they knew his absence would give way to new political ideologies.
Bad Qualities
- To say that this film hasn't aged well would be a colossal understatement. This film contains perhaps the most virulently racist imagery ever to appear in a motion picture... and that's saying a lot considering today's standards. African-Americans are portrayed as cartoonish sex-crazed animals, the Radical Republicans who led the Reconstruction are painted as their deluded patsies, and worst of all, the Ku Klux Klan are shown as an army of heroes, gallantly riding to the defense of the nation while committing numerous hate crimes. The worst part of it is that this film was responsible for the resurgence of the KKK.
- There are several uses of blackface shown being used around the supposed "African-Americans", and the makeup for it isn't even convincing in the least.
- Nearly all of the characters shown throughout the film are very one-note and/or bland.
- Despite the previously mentioned amazing spectacles, some of them are admittedly pretty meaningless, with Griffith rarely bothering to shape or cut them.
- Disappointing acting, with the large gestures Griffith had in his previous films seeming too broad for this film. And with the film being nearly three hours long, the one-note acting becomes especially monotonous.