7/26/14
The Birth of a Nation (1915) Director: D.W. Griffith (David Wark Griffith)
★★☆☆☆
I cannot, in good conscience, praise anything about the narrative of The Birth of a Nation. It presents the notorious “lost cause” narrative of the American Confederacy –a central theme of the film concerns a virtuous, peaceful Southern civilization under the imminent threat of a bestial, black uprising, that is, until a heroic vigilante group unites to form the Ku Klux Klan which defends law and order in the South. It is a shockingly vulgar and revisionist narrative, controversial even a century ago. In this respect, it deserves nothing but scorn. If we can find praise for the film, it would be for its extraordinary technical innovations. The Birth of a Nation marked a dynamic leap forward for the burgeoning cinematic art and it has since been a foundational work for every great director who comes along. If the audience can look beyond the blatantly racist propaganda oozing throughout the film, and instead appreciate the extraordinary force of its cinematography and visually-arresting film-making techniques (i.e. editing and time compression to build dramatic tension and create clear heroes and villains), The Birth of a Nation can be discussed in a new light, not unlike other controversial propaganda films of the 20th century like The Battleship Potemkin or Triumph of the Will. It was the first film to utilize various techniques like panning and color tinting and intercutting/cross cutting and continuity editing (utilizing continuous space and time, and progressively increasing the length of cut scenes to build tension), and the first to employ a full musical score to be played alongside the film. When it was complete, the film had to be released in two separate parts.
Originally entitled The Clansmen after the novel of the same name by former North Carolina Baptist Minister Thomas Dixon, Jr. (1905), The Birth of a Nation was the first 12-reel film released in the United States. It was the first film to be screened at the White House for President Woodrow Wilson who infamously remarked that it was “like writing history with lightning.” However, it faced withering rebuke among some members of the public. The film was accused of racism by the NAACP it was met with large-scale riots and protests in major US cities. As such, the film was banned in major cities including Los Angeles and Chicago. And the film brought about a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, which was busy reorganizing itself against Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants. For years, The Birth of a Nation was used as a recruiting tool for the KKK and in some respects it is still used today to offer a sympathetic portrayal of the KKK. Indeed, the film portrays African Americans as devious, licentious, and lazy sub-humans, and naturally this repulsive imagery led to numerous accusations of racism against Griffith, who furiously denied them all, particularly in his next film, Intolerance (1916). He also published a pamphlet entitled “The Rise and Fall of Free Speech in America” (1916) to decry his critics. Interestingly enough, Griffith had previously produced and directed Biograph’s The Rose of Kentucky (1911), which portrayed the KKK as a villainous organization, and he used this as another defense against continued accusations of racism. In response to the outcry, Lillian Gish (“The First Lady of Cinema”), apparently went to her grave denying that the film was racist. But if a film like The Birth of a Nation is not racist, then what truly is?
Part I: Civil War America
The opening title of the film reads: “A Plea for the Art of the Motion Picture: We do not fear censorship, for we have no wish to offend with improprieties or obscenities, but we do demand, as a right, the liberty to show the dark side of wrong, that we may illuminate the bright side of virtue-the same liberty that is conceded to the art of the written word-that art to which we owe the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.” Part I introduces the audience to two families just before the outbreak of the American Civil War: The Stonemans –a northern family whose father, Austin Stoneman, is an abolitionist congressman and whose character is clearly based on the real historical figure of Thaddeus Stevens. He has two sons and a daughter named Elsie (Lillian Gish). The other family we meet are the Camerons –a Southern family from South Carolina with two daughters, Margaret (Miriam Cooper) and Flora (Mae West), and three sons, the most important being Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall). In the beginning, The Stonemans visit the Camerons and embrace as old friends –Ben Cameron falls in love with Elsie Stoneman- but when the Civil War begins, the young men join their respective armies, north and south. A title reads: “The bringing of the African to America planted the first seeds of disunion.” A rowdy, disorderly black militia attacks the Cameron house but it is rescued by a triumphant Confederate group of soldiers who chase the militia away. Later, Ben Cameron is injured at the Siege of Petersburg but he is rescued by Union soldiers who see him caring for a Union soldier. While still recovering, Elsie Stoneman cares for Ben in a Washington hospital, but the colonel informs him that he will be hanged for being a guerrilla warrior which leads the matriarch of the Cameron family to write an appeal to Abraham Lincoln, or “the Great Heart”, to release Ben Cameron. Mr. Lincoln obliges her wish and he also begins a process of rebuilding the South until he is assassinated on April 14, 1865. After Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theatre (director Raoul Walsh plays John Wilkes Booth), which was filmed on an outdoor set where the cast actually performed Our American Cousin (the play that was being performed when Lincoln was shot), Austin Stoneman and other radical congressmen decide to punish the South and push forward new legislation privileging black Americans.
Part II: Reconstruction
The opening title of Part II reads: “The agony which the South endured that a nation might be born. The blight of war does not end when hostilities cease.” Stoneman and his ally Silas Lynch, a mulatto who is portrayed as surreptitiously evil with an insatiable sexual appetite, travel to visit South Carolina where black soldiers now roam the streets, turning whites away from the ballot box, threatening them, and Lynch is elected Lieutenant Governor. The predominantly black legislature in South Carolina is infamously depicted as raucous and animalistic, without shoes, drinking alcohol, and eating chicken on the floor of the state legislature (these scenes were based on defamatory political cartoons). They push through laws that are intended to degrade whites. One day he witnesses a group of adults attempting to scare children while dressed up as ghosts, Ben Cameron forms the Ku Klux Klan to maintain stability in the South, using the ghostly uniform as inspiration. Meanwhile, Gus a freedman and captain, follows Flora Cameron into the woods in an attempt to capture her and either marry or rape her (the fear and hatred of black people in this scene is blatantly apparent). She jumps off a large rock and falls to her death while Ben Cameron shows up too late to rescue her. The KKK hunts down Gus, tries him, and kills him leaving his corpse on Lynch’s doorstep. Lynch begins searching various homes for KKK costumes and arrests Ben Cameron’s father, but Ben and company rescue him and escape to a small cabin where two Union veterans are hiding out. The title reads: “The former enemies of North and South are united by their defense of their Aryan birthright.” Lynch captures Elsie in the hopes of marrying her and when her father, Austin Stoneman, finds out he is angered, Lynch physically subdues him. The KKK rides in full force to reclaim the town and Ben rescues Elsie from Silas Lynch. Ben and the clansmen then race to save the Cameron family surrounded in the cabin by black soldiers. On the next election day, black homes are surrounded by clansmen and intimidated so they do not vote. The honeymoons of Phil Stoneman and Margaret Cameron, and Ben Cameron with Elsie Stoneman are shown near the ocean. A scene with a war-like figure fades out over a mass of people and a scene of Christ fades in over the people, with the penultimate title reading: “Dare we dream of a golden day when the bestial War shall rule no more? But instead- the gentle Prince in the Hall of Brotherly Love in the City of Peace.”
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