The Birth of a Nation (film)

• Release Date: 1915
• Director(s): D.W. Griffith
• Writer(s): D.W. Griffith ; Frank E. Woods
• Principal Actors and Roles: Lillian Gish (Elsie Stoneman); Mae Marsh (Flora Cameron); Henry B. Walthall (Col. Ben Cameron); Josephine Crowell (Mrs. Cameron); John Ford (Klansman on Horse Holding Up Hood with Hand); Howard Gaye (Gen. Robert E. Lee); Joseph Henabery (Abraham Lincoln); George Siegmann (Silas Lynch)
• Book / Story Film Based On: The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr.

The Birth of a Nation, also known as The Clansman, was a melodramatic, epic silent film that premiered in Los Angeles, California, despite protests against its racist theme. At the time, it was a Hollywood hit and the longest film—a total that exceeds three hours’ running time—that had been produced. It set a precedent for the silent films and feature-length films that followed. The film popularized the medium and showed that films could be both technically advanced and artistic.

The Birth of a Nation served as a landmark film in the cinematic industry before the era of "talkies." More than 2.5 million people viewed the $110,000 film. The film was based on a 1905 novel by Thomas Dixon, Jr., called The Clansmen, which is a novel from a trilogy about the impact of the American Civil War and its aftermath. It shows how a Southern family and a Northern family were impacted by the war.

The film was applauded for its amazing battle scenes and action but criticized for its racist tendencies. It was criticized for glorifying the Ku Klux Klan and denigrating African Americans. Protesters rallied and riots broke out against the film at its openings in Los Angeles, New York City, and most intensely in Boston. The Civil Rights Movement would not gain momentum and national attention until the 1950s, but the response to the film by civil rights leaders, groups, and supporters planted a seed for its growth. Protests against the film did have some success in it not being shown in a few states, such as Kansas and Ohio.

Plot

The film is set in the United States during the Civil War and Reconstruction. It portrays how the white South had been defeated by the North and then oppressed during Reconstruction when it was forced to give African American men social equality. Throughout the course of the film, the film illustrates how two families are impacted before, during, and after the war.

The film is divided into two parts that span from the 1600s to Reconstruction. At the first part of the film, scenes of the slave trade show African Americans being brought to America, where they have virtually no rights, and sold at auction in the 1600. Then the film focuses on the lives of two families before the Civil War—the Northern Stonemans and the Southern Camerons. The boys become friends as they board together at school and subsequently the families do, too. Through a visit together with the Camerons, the Stonemans see slave life that is happy, inclusive, and peaceful. Sisters in both families fall for brothers in both families.

The tone of the film changes as 1860 nears and sectionalism between the North and South intensifies. When the Civil War breaks out, the Cameron and Stoneman boys leave to fight on opposite sides. The course of the war is illustrated, including battles, victories, defeats, and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

The second part of the film focuses on Reconstruction. It shows how Reconstruction and its social, political, and economic changes affected both families. Some of these changes include the new freedoms that African Americans in the South were granted, such as intermarriage and political power. In response to these imposed changes in Southern society, the film reveals the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan, whose members are portrayed as knights who come to rescue Southern white women from Southern African Americans. The result is the restoration of white supremacy in the South, which is how the film culminates.

Significance

The Birth of a Nation was hailed as a blockbuster triumph and was recognized by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress and the American Film Institute’s list of 100 greatest American movies of all time. It captivated audiences and its artistic and technical expression such as close-ups and flashbacks were innovative for the time. Reviews were mixed. Protestors and critics claimed that the Ku Klux Klan used the film as a recruiting tool and that it helped to revive the Klan. Klan membership increased greatly. By the mid-1920s, there were at least two million members. Yet President Woodrow hailed the movie, reportedly saying, "It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true" (Stokes, 111). Most silent movies at this time were fewer than fifteen minutes. A few had reached lengths of about an hour. The Birth of Nation broke the mold and showed the capacity and possibility of the movie camera. Its length, its blend of real-life action scenes, and musical score came together to tell an epic story. Film critics were inspired and their role was renewed and reinvented.

Through this film, the role of the film critic came gained importance, as did the motivation for censorship. Previously, film censorship had been more focused on sexual or crime scenes. The Birth of a Nation opened a new chapter in censorship that was based on regulating how racial and ethnic minorities were portrayed. In the decade after the film was released, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America set new guidelines on what studios could and could not do, and one of the banned situations was interracial sexual relations. Yet even though The Birth of a Nation generated controversy, it raised more awareness and attention to the film.

Joseph Carl Breil wrote the film’s musical score. "The Perfect Song" was a theme song for the characters Elise Stoneman and Ben Cameron. The song sold thousands of copies in the year after the film was released. It was so successful, some of Breil’s themes were published and sheet music was arranged.

The Birth of a Nation was one of the first films to use a color tinting sequence, which was used to produce dramatic and psychological effects. In one color sequence it illustrates the fear of a woman.

The film revolutionized film editing in the sense that Griffith cut up his scenes and shot so many scenes from different angles that he was able to piece them together to show different perspectives. These techniques were adopted and became standardized in modern film editing.

Bibliography

Boyd, Todd. African Americans and Popular Culture. Westport: Greenwood, 2008. Print.

Fain, Kimberly. Black Hollywood. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2015. Print.

Garcia, Claire Oberon, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and Charise Pimentel, eds. From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Help: Critical Perspectives on White-Authored Narratives of Black Life. New York: Palgrave, 2014. Print.

Lehr, Dick. The Birth of a Nation: How a Legendary Filmmaker and a Crusading Editor Reignited America’s Civil War. New York: PublicAffairs, 2014. Print.

Sickels, Robert C. 100 Entertainers Who Changed America: An Encyclopedia of Pop Culture Luminaries. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2013. Print.

Stern, Seymour. H. D.W. Griffith’s 100th Anniversary The Birth of a Nation. Victoria: Friesen, 2014. Print.

Stokes, London Melvyn. D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation: A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time. London: Oxford, 2007. Print.