Birth of a Nation

"It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true"

Woodrow Wilson on Birth of a Nation.

On February 3, 1915, Los Angeles was treated with the film premier of an epic, three hour long spectacle called The Clansman. It's initial response was masterpiece by audiences and critics alike. Never before had a film been this epic or popular and that premier is widely considered the beginning of the modern motion picture industry. The film later opened in New York where it was given it's new title, Birth of a Nation, and soon afterward was privately screened in the White House where Woodrow Wilson allegedly gave his approval (which he later denied). The film later went on to gross an estimated $18 million dollars, a record for motion pictures that would last until 1937 (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves). The film was beloved by nearly everyone for it's beautiful scenery and brilliant film making. D.W. Griffith used all of his techniques he had learned about film and used them to tell a story like it had never been told before. The only problem was that the story he was telling was false.



The screenplay for Birth of a Nation was adapted from Thomas F. Dixon's novel, The Clansman. Knowing that, it's easy to see where the racist depiction of blacks in the movie came from. Blacks were shown as savage, sex-craving people who needed to be controlled by the Ku Klux Klan for the protection of white women in the South. The movie glorified the KKK and seemed to justify their actions by portraying a false history that seemed real to many people. But how does a blatantly racist movie become so popular?

One answer to that question is the film was way ahead of it's time when it comes to film techniques and use of the cross-cut. When we watch the film today, we don't even notice these cuts, but back in 1915, that technique was new and it awed audiences. Another reason the film's popularity took off is that many Americans did not see the racism in the film. 1915 was only 50 years after the Civil War and many people had the same opinion on race as the film. Griffith himself didn't even see how it was racist. He believed he was telling the truth about history. His reaction to the film, and America's reaction, just shows "how racist America could be without even knowing it" (Roger Ebert). It's sad but true. The main reason this racist film became so popular is that much of America was still segregated so opinions on the black race were never formed. We all know about the Jim Crow laws in the south which separated blacks from whites, but the rest of the country was still very segregated as well. Segregation led to many people learning about the issue of race from school or other media sources. Unfortunately, many people formed opinions on the black race from this film that helped lead America to a racist future.