Saturday 23 June 2012

The Birth of a Nation (1915)


En nations fødsel

This is a terrible movie!

There it is, I just spoiled my commentary by starting with the conclusion.

When I see a movie my first and lingering feeling that the movie left me with is also what I judge it by. All the academia only comes later. Am I bored, excited, laughing, captivated by the piece, this is my prime concern. That is maybe due to my background which is not in the humanistics, I do not know, but it is more likely just normal human reaction.

This movie left me disgusted.

"The birth of a nation" is the founding movie of the full length feature and it certainly is full length. It takes place during the American civil war and has its sympathies firmly with the south. This is depicted as a struggle for freedom, for white supremacy and to keep the abolitionists out of their hair. Of course the south looses and the blacks take over and transform the once so ideal south into something between a circus and a zoo with the blacks depicted as little more than apes. Then who saves the day? The Clan of course. Like some Robin Hood or Dick Turpin the noble clansmen protect the south from total degeneration.

Does this leave you with a bad taste in the mouth?

This reminds me of nazi propaganda. There are plenty of veiled racism out there but here it is as if Griffith does not even recognize it as racism but just the most natural thing in the world the way scientist before WWII could talk about eugenics without blinking.

So why do I watch this stuff?

Well, the obvious answer is that it is on the list. Clearly an OCS explanation. But there are other reasons too. Technically this was a huge leap forward. The battle scenes, the epic style, the drama, this movie really broke new ground and it catapulted D.W.Griffith into stardom. From this movie a new concept was born, the feature, which enabled more elaborate stories instead of the small novellas of the two-reelers. Also "The Birth of a Nation" became a monster hit at the box office and remained so for many years and brought the race issue into the headlines. Looking back this piece of overt racism may have done more for emancipation than any other movie.

Did I like it? Hell no!
Was it worth seeing it? Definitely!

8 comments:

  1. I had a similar reaction to this film. On the one hand, the basic story is so evil, so ugly that it's impossible to watch without stomach pain. On the other hand, it's an incredibly innovative film and important in the evolution of film and how we show and relate to stories. So either you praise a film that is socially horrible or you revile a film that is central to the growth of the medium. Either way, you can't really win.

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    1. Indeed. The amazing thing is it was such a massive succes at the box office. It is like having Mein Kampf selling millions of copies because it is printet on glitzy new paper with holograms.

      It choose to think of it as a historic document of the time for better or worse. I don't really have to like it.

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  2. I feel the same way about this movie. You can't ignore its influence - it was so groundbreaking in terms of film language - but you also can't ignore the despicable plot. It's so unfortunate that so many great film elements were established in such a nasty story.

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    1. Indeed. I wish the feature ever was also a movie I could like.

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  3. The reason to see this film is for the technical innovations and the incredible battle scenes. It also serves as a message to how some attitudes were when the film was made and that we shouldn't forget that even if things are nowhere near as overt as they were in the film.

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    1. There are plenty good reasons to see it. Alas I still don't like it.

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  4. This was the second film we watched in my introductory film class. Unlike yourself and others, I didn't really have a negative reaction to this. Yes, it is racist, but it is actually a tad useful explanation as to how the KKK was formed in the US, for better or worse. Plus, as you noted, Griffith employed many revolutionary cinematic techniques in it.

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    1. Yeah, I suppose you are right. It is also a document of its age and as such interesting. Still I cannot say that I like it. It reflects a worldview that I cannot accept.

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