Essay On D. W. Griffith's The Birth Of A Nation

D.W. Grifiths 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, is widely recognized as one of the most consequential films in American cinematic history - it contains many new cinematic innovations and refinements, technical effects and artistic advancements, including a brilliant color sequence at the end, that laid the foundations for modern filmmaking. In 1993 the film was elected into the National Film Registry, and in 1998 voted one of the "Top 100 American Films" by the American Film Institute. Aside from its influence on Hollywood, the film has left an indelible mark on American culture as one of the most prolific pieces of anti-black propaganda of all time.

Birth of a Nation uses its histrionic plot to show how tangled destinies of a southern and northern family before and after the Civil War. It willingly portrays southern blacks as spiteful and uncivil, the northern whites as crafty, dishonest, and conceited, and the film’s southern whites as anguish recurrent radical and erotic mortifications at the hands of white northerners and black southerners before factually being saved by the thoughtful, Ku Klux Klan. The film is divided to show the different aspects of those two sides during this historical time. During this time Africans were coming to America and it started the reconstruction on our country. D.W. Griffith made this film to show us the reality of racism at this point in time.

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.

    Throughout the years there have been many great advancements to break down the barriers between the races. However, the past is a reoccurring issue that draws away from each step forward. Black people today are still crying for freedom because they still feel that are being oppressed by the white nation. Many people in the black community have begun to use the terrible events of the past as leverage against the white community. As race relations becomes  more prevalent issue, the government has tried to take steps to to find a balance between the two races.  The whites are now finding themselves to be the ones who are negatively affected by the color of their skin. History has begun to haunt the people of today. They are having to live with the lasting effects of those people and events

Why after 50 years since the segregation of Central High School, do people of color still face challenges of racism? Long before the segregation of schools, people have faced many instances of discrimination because of the color of their skin. These same prejudice acts still continue today. This nation has yet created a workable plan for solving the gruesome acts of racism because of ineffective protesting, the influence societies have on individuals, and social media.

In this movie the African Americans were treated nicely but in reality they did not feel this way. The masters mistreated their slaves but in the movie they were actually having conversations. There is a scene in the movie where a group of African Americans were shaking hands with the white Americans. The producer of the movie wanted to inform others that the “birth” of America was founded on the basis of equality rather than discrimination. If the producer of the movie did not show how the slaves were mistreated, the people will just see the world in only that point of view; the slaves’ point of view does not exist. Ruling countries oppressed both the undeveloped, barren places and the African Americans. The Birth of the Nation is a perfect example of a form of travel writing; the Americans wanted to inform others about America but this movie was only produced in their perspective. Rather than recording the reality, the produces or writers record history with the input of their own influences.

In the film there are many videos and clips of African Americans being poorly mistreated by whites and police officers. One of the short films shown in the movie was titled “The Birth of a Nation.” In this short film there were scenes of a black man being pushed, punched, teased, etc. by white men just for the fun of it. There were also scenes of a white man raping a black women because blacks were looked down on as lesser than whites.

The history of African Americans in early Hollywood films originated with blacks representing preconceived stereotypes. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, Birth of a Nation, stirred many controversial issues within the black community. The fact that Griffith used white actors in blackface to portray black people showed how little he knew about African Americans. Bosley Crowther’s article “The Birth of Birth of a Nation” emphasizes that the film was a “highly pro-South drama of the American Civil War and the Period of Reconstruction, and it glorified the role of the Ku Klux Klan” (76). While viewing this film, one would assert that the Ku Klux Klan members are heroic forces that rescue white women from sexually abusive black men. Griffith

An example of an American film characterizing racism towards African Americans includes Birth of a Nation by D.W Griffiths which included black slavery and white supremacy. This article further goes into depth about stereotyping and the four sub-topics to explore theme from otherness, stereotyping and power, the role of fantasy, and fetishism. Specifically, the article gives us greater detail on stereotyping and power along with power and fantasy. For stereotyping and power, the main lesson for the sub-topic is about the use of orientalism and the European view of power of a specific

When I was watching the documentary “the 13th and seeing everybody view on the War on Drugs a movement, had me questing if the War on Drugs law were Racially Motivated by President Nixon? Many people believe that the War on Drugs was literally a war on Blacks. In 1865 the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was pass. The amendment made it unconstitutional for someone to be held as a slave. AKA it grants freedom for all Americans. Except criminals, but here the problem after slave was ended African Americans had nowhere to go and could not get jobs because they was uneducated. African Americans were arrested in masse, they were for extremely minor crimes like loitering or vagrancy. People who were arrested was treated like slave ever after the

Written in 1826 and directed in 1915 respectively, The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper and The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith were foundational in influencing both the American novel and film industry. Consequently, they are also two of the most controversial texts in American history as they epitomize racism and the desire for an all white society. Cooper’s vision of an emerging American national character/identity is similar to Griffith’s obvious wish for a white-supremacist paradise in the sense that both men created world’s in which whiteness is regarded as ideal and superlative, while other races are perceived as savage and inferior. Furthermore, Natty Bumppo’s race is as key to his heroism for

First, Birth of a Nation had its debut about a century ago, introducing a new, and in our day in age, taboo, hero: the Ku Klux Klan. The villains were portrayed as African-American people. This controversial, three hour long movie, provoked the rise of a new Ku Klux Klan. Jim Beckerman, a writer for The Record, wrote an article about the Birth of a Nation that said, “On November 25, 1915, the Ku Klux Klan- until then nearly extinct- came roaring back to life at Stone Mountain, Georgia, citing ‘The Birth of a Nation’ as inspiration.” This proved to be a controversial movie of its time, just as The Interview became controversial as well. The Interview, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, blew up in the media when North Korea, according to Thanh Tan, threw a “cyber-tantrum.” People wanted to

Birth of a Nation is a silent film epic which made by D. W. Griffith in 1915. Basically, this 3 hours racial melodrama brilliantly chronicles the story between the Northern Stoneman family and the Southern Cameron family who both experienced the Civil War and Reconstruction. However, this film still remains highly controversial ever since it made. Once people mention this film today, the primary concern automatically ignores everything and focuses on how extremely Racial this film has been. In this film, Griffith simply depicts the world into two parts. He sets these two groups into opposition with one another in almost every detail, as the film depicts the black are violent and harmful animal – like being; therefore, the white and the Ku

Perhaps no other director has generated such a broad range of critical reaction as D.W. Griffith. For students of the motion picture, Griffith's is the most familiar name in film history. Generally acknowledged as America's most influential director (and certainly one of the most prolific), he is also perceived as being among the most limited. Praise for his mastery of film technique is matched by repeated indictments of his moral, artistic, and intellectual inadequacies. At one extreme, Kevin Brownlow has characterized him as "the only director in America creative enough to be called a genius." At the other, Paul Rotha calls his contribution to the advance of film "negligible" and Susan Sontag complains of his "supreme vulgarity and even

Hollywood and the media continues to promote social stereotypes as the white male is portrayed as upper-middle-class professional who is family-oriented while African Americans are depicted as thugs, funny, maids, best friends, and servants. The media sacrifices objective depiction of races to gain better ratings and earnings. Further, in most movies, blacks are depicted as foolish, lazy, submissive, violent, animal-like, and irresponsible. The 1915 film The Birth of a Nation was one of the first films to feature a strong stereotype by portraying blacks as subhuman.