Birth of a Nation

viewed March 19, 2000 on video

For full information about this film, click here

Halfway into this movie I was looking for ways to disprove the claims that the film is overtly racist.  Two thirds of the way I was seeking ways to justify the racism.  By the end my shoulders sunk -- I felt that much of this film is socially irredeemable. However, I had to wonder what made me jump to the defense of this film in the first place.  

Maybe I just couldn't believe that a brilliant filmmaker could be so misguided as to glorify the Ku Klux Klan.  He must have had his own logic and his reasons.  And he does.  And the thing is, although people will forgive his views for being of another time, they really aren't that far from the thoughts that many people harbor privately in their hearts today.  I have met quite a few people who are given to at least the occasional idea that America would be a better place if there were no blacks, or Latinos, or Asians, or gays, or...  Given the political correctness of this age, to speak such thoughts is public suicide, but that doesn't mean people won't think them.  Even 90 years ago, the public sentiment was one against racism (though not nearly as sophisticated as it is now).  It was no easier to talk about racism either, except in the same feel-good generalities we get today in schoolrooms and campaign speeches.  To make sense of one's own feelings (they aren't always feel-good) takes real determination and self-scrutiny.  In this light I am tempted to call Griffith courageous in daring to expose his own beliefs, make sense of his feelings for himself, and then make them seem justifiable to others.  The scary part is that he succeeds in doing the first two, and almost succeeds at the third.

I believe he was trying his best to justify himself by examining the conditions that led to the Civil War and the South's post-war demise.  He lends a seemingly scholarly approach to his exposition of the plot, though his overall meaning lacks clarity and thoroughness.  The very first shot of the film attacks the slave trade for bringing the negro to the States and beginning a whole series of troubles. Could he then provide alternatives to the sustainment of the Southern economy without slave labor?  Later he mourns the assassination of Lincoln,  "the South's best friend." What would he have foreseen Lincoln doing for the South?  Lincoln probably would not have been as oppressive towards Southerners as his successors, but that doesn't mean the South would have appreciated him any more.  Still, Griffith lays out the events along his own logic, depicting the administration of the black South as unruly and unfair to whites, and most importantly, threatening to white women as black men make advances like uncontrolled savages.  Miscegenation is a major subtext throughout the film, mostly explored through two mulatto characters, both of whose overt sexuality threatens to infiltrate the white population with more half-breeds.

Thus the Southerners are left with no alternative but to dress for Halloween a little early and spook the bejeezus out of their black neighbors.  One of the most fascinating scenes is when a white man finds his inspiration for the KKK costume by observing black children playing with a bedsheet.  Scenes like that have true staying power, and there are several others: the breathless charges and exansive views during the epic battle scenes, the dramatic "liberation" of the black-ruled town, and the visionary coda.  Griffith's breakthrough use of montage to build suspense and depth, and his mastery of narrative assembly are too extraordinary to be taken lightly.  This film shouldn't be dismissed as simply racist, at least not at the start.  One has to watch this film, marvel at its art, and wrestle with its ideas before coming down to conclusions.  It does deserve that much. 

Click here for a thorough synopsis of the film.  

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