THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)

Slow pan dancing

Atlanta burns in composite

Don't diss the Gish

Can see signs of German expressionism in this shot... maybe

Title: The Birth of A Nation
Year: 1915
Director: D. W. Griffith
Format: Blu-ray
Label: Masters of Cinema

Notes: A difficult film to appreciate objectively but one with enormous historical importance and with plenty to offer to anyone interested in the development of narrative cinema. This is an adaptation of the novel 'The Clansman' which, assuming the film retains the spirit of the book, is a racist and revisionist view of American civil war history that celebrates white supremacy.

Unfortunately, this material was used to create an incredible film. Griffith's talent is to be able to interleave romance, violent drama and history at a rapid pace throughout 190 minutes of frankly epic cinema. The number of individual shots must be close to a thousand. Hopefully the stills above give some indication of the cinematic craft on display in the film.

Despite this the film is hard to bear at times. Even if we give some leniency due to the time it was made, Griffith cannot be forgiven for at least two things: he offers no explanation for the legitimate anger of the freed black population and he sides completely with the Aryan supremacist movement without any criticism of their morale failures. The infrequent apologies in the intertitles do not absolve. One of the last scenes shows the victorious KKK preventing black citizens from voting - something terribly resonant to this day!