DVD Notes: “The Birth of a Nation”
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| The thrilling ride of the KKK in D.W. Griffith's momentous war epic "The Birth of a Nation" |
This year marks the centenary of
the release of D.W. Griffith’s Civil War epic, generally regarded as the first
major feature-length film – which would make this year the centennial year for
feature-length narrative cinema. This blog is specifically devoted to this art
form, and this would be an unfortunate milestone to pass up, and the film would
be an unfortunate entry to be omitted. Regrettably, the film is also an
unfortunate one to be included. Much has been written on the offensive and
pernicious portrayals of black people in this film, which have been seen as
such since the day of the film’s release. I say this is unfortunate, because it
is in this spirit of prejudice and intolerance that modern cinema was born. It’s a great pioneering work, which made
much of today’s cinema possible, and established many techniques and devices
that have been used universally to great effect in the last century. Roger
Ebert wrote of it, “The Birth of a Nation is not a bad film because it
argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, it is a great
film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great
deal about film, and even something about evil.” We can, and probably should,
hate this film for what it is, but we (movie goers and filmmakers alike) and
our cinematic heritage are ineluctably in its debt for much of what we love.