Analysis Of Broken Blossoms And The Birth Of A Nation

The films, Remember The Titans and The Sapphires are both discovering significant social messages of racial conflict. With these messages and the techniques used in both films they have resulted in two powerful films that highlight racial discrimination. This essay will explore the relationship between the filmmaking and the social messages it is trying to highlight, as well as the similarities, differences and techniques shared between both films

The Birth of a Nation, arguably one of the most ambiguous names in the history of cinema, is only about to get more complex and chaotic. The Birth of a Nation was originally the title of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 racist propaganda film about the rise of the Ku Klux Klan who “saved” the South from being dictated by blacks during the Reconstruction era when the North tried to rebuild the South after the Civil War. Now, that title poises a new movie written, directed, produced, and starring actor Nate Parker that dramatizes the 1831 slave rebellion led by enslaved African-American Nat Turner.

The film Birth of a Nation was released. The Ku Klux Klan was reborn. In January 1923, Fannie Taylor accused a black man of coming to her home and viciously beating her. A fugitive was originally accused. Aunt Sarah worked for Fannie & James Taylor. On New Year’s morning Aunt Sarah & her granddaughter witnessed a white man visiting Fannie. He visited a lot while James Taylor worked. People gossiped that they were having an affair. A posse gathered to find the black man who hurt Fannie. Jesse Hunter, a fugitive from another town was under suspicion. Aaron Carrier was arrested. Fannie’s white

In the film, The Princess Bride, the director Rob Reiner introduced many themes into the plot. A significant theme in the film, The Princess Bride, is ’Intelligence’. Had intelligence not have been a contributing factor to the plot, there would be a completely different outcome at the end.

Despite having an archetypal storyline, The Princess Bride proves to be anything but predictable. From the moment the title appears onscreen in a font that evokes classic fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty, it is clear the story is going to be rooted in fantasy. Following the appearance of the title comes the sound of a child’s cough as the black screen gives way to the graphics a baseball video game. The camera pans around the room to reveal posters of Chicago Cubs and Bears players, and soon rests on a child, presumably the source of the cough. Thus, the mise-en-scene has introduced to one of our two narrators, the other being the child’s grandfather who comes to read him a story. Though the novel read by the grandfather conveys a hackneyed tale of undying love, the film frames this in a self-aware way with periodic interruption of the story’s narrative by comments from young boy which are cynical at first, by grow to reflect a genuine interest as the movie progresses. This move is self-reflexive in that it reminds the audience that they are, in fact, watching a move; however, this serves to elevate the meaning of the film. Through the use of sound, editing, and mise-en-scene, The Princess Bride emphasizes that even though the concept of true love has saturated society and become cliché, it’s no less potent because of the cultural overplay. I will specifically discuss the utilization of deep focus shots, color, and lighting that caricaturize the traditional fairy tale,

They even dance with excitement as their master looks on. Critics argue that this is a distorted view on racial history. Since the standpoint of the film revolves around white southerners, the scene attempts to glamorize slavery. In another display of discrimination, a newly elected group of Black legislators begin session. While in debate, african americans are shown drinking whiskey, devouring chicken, and removing their shoes. The purpose of this scene was to show the inability of African Americans to govern a nation. In illustrating blacks as barbaric and ill-mannered, the movie exhibits why the elite whites need to stay in power. With a focus on the Lost Cause, Birth of a Nation put a favorable stance on the South’s ideologies. One of those ideologies being white superiority.

All through the considered silent period, Blacks in film were typically pigeonholed as toms or coons. Nonetheless, the savage still showed up, particularly in the uncommon, in movies of “all colored cast”. These movies were aimed at portraying women as lesser beings because they could be used as dancers or sex tools in the Antebellum South, or in present-day Harlem. Extensive consideration has been given to the commonness and diligence of generalizations of the blacks in America (Bates 661). Yet one of these recognized generalizations or stereotyping, the “abysmal mulatto,” has gotten quick consideration from researchers and social pundits of film and pop culture in the United States. The Birth of a Nation portrays a society that is truly bent in keeping up the rigid social limits, this exclusion is very tricky. It is true that most films during this period, tried to dissect the film’s political capacities and sociological effect as far as race, sex, and class is concerned.

“Birth of a Nation” & D.W. Griffin is a movie based on a play with the setting during the civil war. It is about to opposite families living in the Northern states and the Southern states.

In early African American Cinema, filmmakers had a mission to move away from white perspectives on what it meant to be black (Stewart 225). Oftentimes, we would see black actors being portrayed in scenes as the antagonist committing crimes, as in the case of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. Soon after Griffith released the film, filmmaker Oscar Micheaux forever changed American Independent Cinema with his “response” film Within Our Gates, which helped start the advent of race films (NAACP 1). Some of the most notable race films were: The Homesteader, Body and Soul, and The Blood of Jesus. Such films were produced for all-black audiences that featured black casts. But that did not necessarily mean that they were directed and written by

The race film genre is a source of important material highlighting the African American culture. The genre not only focused on culture, but also emphasized African American talent, Black’s ability to film, produce, and direct a motion picture, and most importantly, the genre exposed the world to the “real” African American individual and family. Although many of these films were only shown and marketed to “colored only” theaters, films like Harlem of Prairie (1937) and The Blood of Jesus (1941) are notable films that struck a core with both White and Black Americans. These are a few of the forgotten race films that have provided today’s African Americans with a sense of encouragement and confidence to continue to fight the struggle of

Death is a unique part of life, and loss is an unavoidable result of death. In Alice Walker’s 1973 short story “The Flowers”, childhood loss of innocence and death are illuminated through the experience of a child and her encounter with a dead man in post-slavery America. Louise Erdrich’s 1984 short story “The Red Convertible” is a story of loss in the face of death, set in Vietnam era America. Walker and Erdrich both use strong imagery and symbolism to effectively portray the impact of the common themes of loss and death in both short stories, albeit in different ways.

Film is, and has been one of the most significant aspects of American culture for over one hundred years. In addition to entertainment value, film plays crucial social role in conveying the struggles, and hardships of various groups. The importance of film is constantly being changed and driven forward by filmmakers. Without influential directors, there would be no driving force making films that entertain and inform about the perspective of different groups of people. Throughout the history of film, there have been certain directors whose work was so influential it changed the entire film industry. One such director is Charles Burnett. Through his films, Burnett birthed the idea of African American film, films that are made and acted by African Americans that display the struggles of African American people. The themes and ideas that Charles Burnett featured in his films would go on to be the foundation for other filmmaker’s films during African Americans film’s rise to prominence. This paper will focus on the cornerstone themes of Burnett’s work as seen in his films The Killer of Sheep, and My Brothers Wedding. In particular, themes such as family and self-identity will be explored. Links between the themes of these films and more modern films will then be made.

Love stories have been around for centuries, as ever changing as they have been one thing stays constant, a happily ever after ending. Each story might be perceived differently but each story has the unique ability to capture all that seek to find their own happy ending. The famous Cinderella story shows the perfect example of how the princess culture can be seen in children everywhere. Children are attracted to Cinderella and stories like it because they believe if you are morally good there has to be a happily ever after for them. The film “The Princess Bride” offers the inherent hope that happily ever after’s are attainable for all who persevere.

The Movie, The Prince Bride was about a young man named Westley and a woman named Buttercup that were deeply in love, but were separated for a long time due to their different paths in life. Westley would have to return in order to save Buttercup from not only an unwanted marriage but also to save her life. He must go through tons of trouble to be reunited with his true love Buttercup. In the movie The Princess Bride (1987) Rob Reiner explains that love is the strongest element Rob Reiner uses Irony and repetition to prove this point. Rob Reiner uses these elements in order emphasize the connection true love has is strong. In order to show people that love still exists therefore you shouldn’t just give up on love. The movie pertains towards people that are in love or have experienced it due to the movie being focused on a connection between two people even though how separate their lives were they were able to be together. The author uses Irony to prove that love is the strongest bond between people. When Westley was in a mission to save Buttercup he had a barrier in his way, a giant in which the odds on beating the giant was not in Westley’s favor. He was still able to Beat him in a fist fight, the connection true love created allowed him to win. The example from the movie was ironic because due to the odds westley had the viewers would think it would be impossible to fool the giant, the author was able to create physical but at the same time still making it ironic. This showed the viewers that there is nothing stopping him and true love. The author also uses irony when Buttercup believed that she was being forced to marry Prince Humperdink because he wanted the marriage, but actually the whole time Prince Humperdink was trying to have Buttercup killed by Vizzini who kidnapped and tried to murder her. He did all of this to frame it on Guilder to start a war. This shows irony and relates to the theme because the fact that Prince Humperdink was actually trying to kill Buttercup throws off the viewers because it seemed like he tried to save her when she was kidnapped but it was all his doings was completely against the viewer's expectation but created humor at the same time. This connects to the theme because

The work of D.W. Griffith in the film Birth of a Nation was the blueprint for what we see in many of today’s films that we take for granted. He truly pioneered the use of line of sight and point of view many times in the first half of the movie. This was effective in developing back stories of the main characters and setting up some small but important plot lines like the future love story of the southern Cornel and his northern friend’s sister. This was done well with the showing of his hording of her picture and the close up in the photo with the effect of tunnel vision to place an emphasis that this is what he was looking at. Also I found that the use of cross cutting was one of D.W Griffith’s strong points in this film that gave it throughout, a strong narrative delivery. This was exceptional with the lines of action that were shown in the film. For instance, in the charge scene the use of the delivery of the order to the charge from the camera angle in front of the southern troops to the side angle of them overrunning the first entrenchment was just a small segment of cinematic innovation in this film.