{"id":1187,"date":"2006-06-19T18:20:49","date_gmt":"2006-06-20T01:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1187"},"modified":"2020-12-25T22:59:37","modified_gmt":"2020-12-26T05:59:37","slug":"birth-of-a-nation-the-1915","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1187","title":{"rendered":"Birth of a Nation, The (1915)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;This is an historical presentation of the Civil War and Reconstruction Period, and is not meant to reflect on any race or people of today.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Poster-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-24593\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Poster-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Poster.jpg 338w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter the defeat of the South in the American Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan fights against what it perceives as the emergence of black supremacy.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>African Americans<\/li>\n<li>Civil War<\/li>\n<li>Deep South<\/li>\n<li>D.W. Griffith Films<\/li>\n<li>Lillian Gish Films<\/li>\n<li>Racism<\/li>\n<li>Silent Films<\/li>\n<li>Slavery<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review:<\/strong><br \/>\nPeary refers to this groundbreaking, highly controversial silent movie as &#8220;the birth of the feature film&#8221;. Indeed, as Roger Ebert argues in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/great-movie-the-birth-of-a-nation-1915\">&#8220;Great Movies&#8221; review<\/a>, in <em>Birth of a Nation<\/em>, director &#8220;[D.W.] Griffith demonstrated to every filmmaker and moviegoer who followed him what a movie was, and what a movie could be.&#8221; Peary notes that the film &#8212; &#8220;based on the Reverend Thomas Dixon&#8217;s racist Reconstruction play <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Clansman\"><em>The Clansman<\/em><\/a>, which celebrated the KKK for restoring the politics and life-style of the antebellum South&#8221; &#8212; will &#8220;astonish you with its visuals&#8221; (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmsite.org\/birt.html\">here<\/a> for an extensive list of the cinematic techniques Griffith brought to the film) yet &#8220;repulse you with its content&#8221;. Peary chastises Griffith for promoting a narrative in which &#8220;the klansmen become our heroes when they rescue whites who are about to be killed by black militiamen&#8221;, and concludes his review by arguing that <em>Birth<\/em>&#8230; is &#8220;a great film&#8230; marred by a reprehensible viewpoint&#8221;. He concedes, however, that it&#8217;s &#8220;too important to miss, if only to see what once passed as history.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An abundance of exciting new cinematic techniques &#8212; including cross-cutting, night photography, the &#8220;iris shot&#8221;, and color tinting<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Still.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Still.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24595\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Still.jpg 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Still-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Still-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Highly realistic Civil War battle recreations<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Battles.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Battles.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24596\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Battles.jpg 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Battles-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Birth-of-a-Nation-Battles-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes. While difficult to watch, this film is nonetheless too historically important for any film fanatic to miss.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Controversial Film<\/li>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> (<span style=\"color:red;font-weight:bold;\">Listed in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-static\/1001Movies.htm\"><em>1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die<\/em><\/a><\/span>) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0004972\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/great-movie-the-birth-of-a-nation-1915\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1921\/05\/02\/archives\/the-screen.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmsite.org\/birt.html\">Greatest Films Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;This is an historical presentation of the Civil War and Reconstruction Period, and is not meant to reflect on any race or people of today.&#8221; Synopsis: After the defeat of the South in the American Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan fights against what it perceives as the emergence of black supremacy. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: African Americans Civil War Deep South D.W. Griffith Films Lillian Gish Films Racism Silent Films Slavery Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: Peary refers to&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1187\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1187"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59586,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions\/59586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}