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D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation: A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time ReviewMelvyn Stokes has written a book that should provide most people with everything they need to know about D.W. Griffith's epic film "The Birth of a Nation." The author includes background on the sources for the film, the life and career of Griffith, details on the making of the film, the initial reception of the film, the contemporary controversy, subsequent history of the film and some of the main people involved with it, a discussion of the historical veracity, and a some overview of modern scholarly opinion about the film. The book itself is a scholarly work, with large bibliography and extensive footnotes. However, the book itself is not very long and reads quite well, so that anyone with an interest in this subject should find it difficult to put down."The Birth of a Nation" has to be considered as the greatest film in the history of American film. Most films up to this time had been short, fairly simple and direct amusements seen inexpensively largely by working class and immigrant audiences. Audiences at the time had never seen anything with this epic sweep, spectacular historical recreations, emotional intensity, and gripping suspenseful action. Audiences and commentators were bowled over, the film was seen by millions, and it made a ton of money. The form and perception of movies were changed forever.
On the other hand, the film must be the most racist ever to come out of mainstream Hollywood. Not just casually or unconsciously, but really ideologically racist. Though the film deals with Northern and Southern characters and historical figures (and caricatures) through the Civil War into Reconstruction, the main thrust of the plot is toward the birth of the Ku Klux Klan and its brave riders restoring white supremacy and saving white women from the old fate-worse-than. Though the source material book (or two) and play by Thomas W. Dixon (well-discussed by Stokes) may make their points more explicitly, the blood and thunder of Griffith's film technique make them more powerfully. Perhaps it is somehow fitting that this seminal American film should be infused with the stain of racism, not unlike the U.S. Constitution.
The book contains a fair number of factual repetitions, and I would have liked some discussion the state and variations among existing prints of the film. Aside from these minor points, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this film, D.W. Griffith, or film history. It may even provide you with sufficient context to enable you to watch the film.
D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation: A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time OverviewIn this deeply researched and vividly written volume, Melvyn Stokes illuminates the origins, production, reception and continuing history of this ground-breaking, aesthetically brilliant, and yet highly controversial movie. By going back to the original archives, particularly the NAACP and D. W. Griffith Papers, Stokes explodes many of the myths surrounding The Birth of a Nation (1915). Yet the story that remains is fascinating: the longest American film of its time, Griffith's film incorporated many new features, including the first full musical score compiled for an American film. It was distributed and advertised by pioneering methods that would quickly become standard. Through the high prices charged for admission and the fact that it was shown, at first, only in "live" theaters with orchestral accompaniment, Birth played a major role in reconfiguring the American movie audience by attracting more middle-class patrons. But if the film was a milestone in the history of cinema, it was also undeniably racist. Stokes shows that the darker side of this classic movie has its origins in the racist ideas of Thomas Dixon, Jr. and Griffith's own Kentuckian background and earlier film career. The book reveals how, as the years went by, the campaign against the film became increasingly successful. In the 1920s, for example, the NAACP exploited the fact that the new Ku Klux Klan, which used Griffith's film as a recruiting and retention tool, was not just anti-black, but also anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish, as a way to mobilize new allies in opposition to the film. This crisply written book sheds light on both the film's racism and the aesthetic brilliance of Griffith's filmmaking. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the cinema.
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