The Birth of a Nation

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The Birth of a Nation

Film still

Date: March 4, 1915

Source: The Birth of a Nation. Reliant-Majestic Studios, 1915. Still courtesty of AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.

About the Author: David Wark Griffith (1875–1945) was the son of a former Confederate officer. His family fell on hard times after the Civil War and he was raised in genteel poverty. He struggled for many years as an actor and writer before finding his true calling in the new medium of film. Griffith mastered the art of writing and directing movies. While some of his later films are well-regarded by critics and historians, none were as successful, or controversial, as his first major film, The Birth of a Nation.

INTRODUCTION

The film The Birth of a Nation has remained controversial in the decades since its 1915 debut for its interpretation of race relations in American history. It was directed by D.W. Griffith, one of the men who helped create the film industry. Griffith demonstrated that huge sums of money could be made in the new medium of films but he made these profits by portraying the Ku Klux Klan as heroic for its vigilante actions against African Americans.

Griffith developed The Birth of a Nation script from a popular play and novel about the Civil War, The Clansman by Thomas Dixon, Jr. The story centers on two families, the southern Camerons and the northern Stonemans. Their friendship as the film begins symbolizes a united nation. The politics of the film becomes apparent as soon as the arrival of African slaves on American shores is introduced as the event that brought strife to the United States. In the film, Griffith blames the Civil War and its aftermath on African Americans and politicians. During the post-war period known as Reconstruction, Griffith shows a South that is victimized by Northern politicians. The newly freed slaves in the South are portrayed as evil, racially embittered, slovenly, and lustful toward white women. A Cameron son, angered by the death of his sister to escape an attempted rape at the hands of an African American, forms the Ku Klux Klan to protect whites.

Griffith, the son of a Confederate officer, told the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction as southern whites understood it. However, his story had little to do with reality. African Americans held majorities in only two state legislatures during Reconstruction and never had much genuine power. The myth of the African American rapist was exploded by journalist Ida B. Wells (1862–1931) in the 1890s as a means of justifying white violence against blacks. But Griffith's version of history, in which everything was fine until the North decided to meddle and the slaves got uppity endured for decades. Subsequent movies on the subject followed the same line, although with less offensive racism. Not until the civil rights movement of the 1960s would American historians seriously challenge the view that Reconstruction's attempt to create a better world for former slaves was a misguided disaster.

PRIMARY SOURCE

THE BIRTH OF A NATION

See primary source image.

SIGNIFICANCE

The Birth of a Nation is generally regarded by film historians as the most important film of the early silent era, both artistically and politically. At over three hours, the film was the longest ever made in the United States up to that time. It was also the most technically dazzling with creative camera movement and angles, close-ups, panning and tracking, cross-cutting to simultaneously occurring events, montage editing, iris shots, split screen, fade-ins and fade-outs, and long shots. These techniques had been used before, but never to such great effect and never in such a way as to involve the audience so deeply. The film was a blockbuster, earning $18 million. So many people saw the movie that the film is credited with widening the film audience beyond the working class to include the middle and upper classes. Schoolchildren were taken to the movie to learn history.

The Birth of a Nation was a vivid and dramatic rewriting of history at a time when many white people were frightened by the great migration of African Americans into northern cities. Whether or not Griffith intended to do so, his film helped revive the Ku Klux Klan. The movie also met with protests. Many reviewers noted with dismay that every African American character was evil or stupid at the same time that they praised Griffith's technical accomplishments. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) organized a precedent-setting national boycott of the film, probably the first such effort and one of the most successful. The film was banned in three states and several cities. However, the turmoil made other filmmakers wary of using African American characters. As a result, African Americans largely disappeared from mainstream movies until the 1940s.

The Birth of a Nation was the first important American political film. It helped to popularize the image of the South under Reconstruction and influenced the way that Americans thought about politics. Politicians were portrayed as evil and corrupt, motivated only by self-interest, while the people who became Ku Klux Klan vigilantes were portrayed as good citizens. Within ten years of the film's premier, the Ku Klux Klan rose to the height of its power.