THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: D.W. Griffith
Lillian Gish, Henry B. Walthall, Mae Marsh,
Robert Harron, Wallace Reid, Miriam Cooper
If you've never seen "The Birth of a Nation", there are two things you might want to know going in: 1) It's considered the most widely influential pioneering work in movie history, and 2) The good guys are the Ku Klux Klan. It's an epic story about the Civil War and its aftermath in the Reconstruction South: romantic, passionate, ambitious, exciting, pedantic and, despite the director's periodic disclaimers, virulently racist. Close to 100 years after its release, it still has the power to shock and appall, with its depiction of blacks - some played by white actors in blackface - as an inferior species, and a constant, stalking threat to the purity of white women. Much of Griffith's early stock company appears, and Gish especially is luminous in her first great role. A landmark, even if it does make your skin crawl.
