Length: 190 minutes
Director: D.W. Griffith
Cast: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper
Eric's Impressions: I recall seeing this film - or at least parts of it - in a history class at some point of my scholastic career. I mention parts of it because I don't remember seeing all of the overt racism that Griffith trickles throughout American cinema's first true epic. While I do enjoy some of the story - the romantic tale revolving around the always enchanting Lillian Gish tops the list - it's hard not to cringe watching the movie. Making the Ku Klux Klan into heroic figures at the picture's conclusion is equivalent to Steven Speilberg applauding the efforts of the Nazis at the concentration camps in "Schindler's List." Griffith never apologized for these cinematic injustices and even took offense to anyone that questioned his intentions. Thankfully, he stayed away from this subject matter in later achievements like "Intolerance" and "Broken Blossoms." Still, "The Birth of A Nation" broke the ground for countless war epics that followed and does deserve points for the creativity of its structure.
Natalie's Impressions: I also saw this movie in high school or parts of it in high school and remember being really offended by the black face actors, the "heroic" KKK, the misogynistic treatment of women, and all the other stereotypes this movie enforces. At times I was so disgusted I thought the movie should not be included in any sort of noteworthy movie list, especially since organizations like the NAACP came out strong against the movie the year it came out. At the time it was seen as too racist. I almost feel like that should overshadow the fact that it was groundbreaking for the war epic genre but I do see that being such a controversial film has made it so important in a discussion of early 20th century American film.
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