Birth of a Nation

2007-02-07 15:08:50

Birth of a Nation (1915, USA, DW Griffith)


The birthing process is a notoriously difficult ordeal with what he hope results as the seed to greatness. Before we can get to the fruit, there must be a seed, and before we can get to the seed we must have the processes of creation, the pangs. The Birth of a Nation is a film that reminds us of how young the United States is and undertakes the task of attempting to show us, in a semi-historically minded way, some of the pangs we have encountered along the way. The Birth of a Nation is also a film at the very infancy of national and international cinematic history. At both 100 years after the secession of the 13 United States from England, and 50 years after that, the country had found itself with its first real test of adversity. And the issue was black and white, plain as day for all to see. Not too much grey in there. A Mason-Dixon line formed and a cataclysmic event took place that would lead to a new and improved idea of our country.
DW Griffith was already a Civil War short film veteran by the year 1915 as well as the son of a Confederate vet, and the experience and knowledge would no doubt help as he undertook the by far the longest (almost 180 minutes), most expensive ($110,000), most grandly elaborate, in sets and scenes, and perhaps the most monstrous, in size and tone, film to date. There are a handful of films throughout cinematic history that can be pointed to as landmarks and this is one. This is an epic film with some truly fantastic battle scenes, even more so given the advances of computer in film. However, its gradiosity in scale is matched by the magnitude of decidedly racist tones that are pervasive throughout. Actors in black face, supposedly for the scenes interacting with white women only, ‘mulatto’ face actors and black actors combine to show the apparent antagonistic presence. This is the story of how the south may have lost the war but they would not lose their integrity under the rule of the blacks. Of course, we are forewardned by the opening dialogue card: the film has “…taken the liberty to show the dark side of wrong that we may illuminate the bright side of virtue.” And the introduction to the second half of the story, the reconstruction: it is “…a historical presentation…not meant to reflect on any race or people of today.” Hmmmmmm.
There are gross examples of the racism in this film. After the blacks get elected to a sweeping majority of seats in the first legislature of South Carolina after the war, they are drinking during their sessions from bottles beneath their books, putting their bare feet up on desks; they even have to pass a law to mandate wearing shoes to the sessions and a law saying all “whites must salute a negro soldier.” Gone are the days when the blacks were getting “two hours of lunchtime” to enjoy their dancing-in-the streets, happy-go-lucky, livin-it-up lifestyle. And so the film shows us the birth of the KKK, which has apparently risen from shame to rescue the south once again. The south can agree to not have slaves anymore but that’s it and maybe even the right idea according to this film.
In any event, you may utter a “wow” or two when the movie is done. The characters are simply vehicles to tell their story and do their part in this epic film and it may be hard to feel any empathy for anyone in this film, other than the black community as a whole. Birth of a Nation is worth watching for any film buff, it is a living piece of our history, even though it is the dark underbelly of it.

Click here to see the movie related to this post