Birth of a Nation

D W Griffith, USA, 1915, 165 minutes

The importance of this film in the history of American cinema cannot be overstressed, being the first American film of any size and scope, and more importantly, it won worldwide respect for motion pictures, turning them into an art rather than an entertaining gimmick. D.W. Griffith's first epic masterpiece created many top-ranking stars from its giant cast, and made a legend of himself.

The prologue depicts the introduction of slavery tp America in the seventeenth century and the beginnings of the abolitionist movement. The major part of the film depicts the events before, during and after the Civil War. It focuses on the exploitation of the newly-freed negroes and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the south. Griffith shows it at once as a drama, a romance, and a documentary, with the vivid period reconstruction outweighing the personal stories of the cast; a big film for big history: Atlanta burning, the surrender of Lee; the assassination of Lincoln, and the Southern recdnstruction. Woodrow Wilson watched the film and said "It is like writing history with lightning; my only regret is that it is all so terribly true."

The president wasn't alone at the cinema; the general public flocked to pay the unheard-of huge admission fee of $2, making it an outstanding fmancial success for Griffith and the Epoch Producing Co. But it sparked a rage over its alleged anti-negro bias and Griffith's apparent attitude towards the Ku Klux Klan, being condemned as "a flagrant incitement to racial antagonism", and state authorities were urged - unsuccessfully - to ban the film. Griffith himself was said to be hurt and bewildered by this criticism; and even though it is still debated to this day, it hardly seems relevant, almost 80 years since the film's release. Birth of a Nation has passed into history as, biased or not, the most important film in American screen evolution, possibly the world.

Review by Mark Radice
Taken from EUFS Programme 1992-93