The Birth of a Nation (1915)

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It is almost impossible to talk about early American cinema without mentioning D.W. Griffith’s 1915 Civil War-era epic, The Birth of a Nation.  The film achieved so much in terms of its scope, production techniques, use of editing, and its special effects that it is difficult to ignore.  Yet, its racist and white supremacist foundation is so obviously visible, particularly today, that it is often difficult to discuss.  How does one appreciate a monument of early twentieth century film making whilst dealing with the vicious level of racism it contained? Perhaps it is impossible – the story is too skewed, the characters stereotyped beyond redemption.  Perhaps appreciation is the wrong approach.  Instead of attempting to appreciate this piece, perhaps one should instead attempt to understand it.  Appreciation and understanding do not necessarily have to attend one to the other.  Indeed, the more one comes to understand The Birth of a Nation it may well be that they come to appreciate it all the less.  There is a lot to abhor in this movie but so too is there a lot to understand about it – it contains a repellent beauty.

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To some, the themes and ideas expressed in this film may be familiar, but to many others the meaning of this film, and its place in history, may not be so clear.   The Birth of a Nation exemplified the ‘Lost Cause’ myth which grew up following the Civil War.  It recast the history of that conflict into something that was much more flattering for the former Confederate states, tying the war to honour and a defense of the country’s founding republican ideals rather than depicting it as a defense of slavery.  The South was shown to be an honourable place, the institution of slavery as a benign state of servitude that generally benefited its victims, and the period of Reconstruction as a time when a tyrannical Union (and the region’s now-freed Black population) ruled despotically across the South.  The Birth of a Nation  reflected this dream-like vision of the past even as it helped to solidify it further.  In this episode of ‘The Artist in American History’ podcast we examine the final scenes from that movie with a new director’s-style commentary; from depictions of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) to the film’s crude use of anti-Black stereotypes.

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Related Links

A Song of the South: Decoding Dixie (Podcast Episode)

Exhuming John Brown’s Body (Podcast Episode)

D.W Griffith’s The Mended Lute with Audio Commentary (Video Podcast Episode)