The Birth of a Nation Review

The Birth of a Nation

Year: 1915

Director:  D. W. Griffith

Main Actors:  Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, and Henry B. Walthall

 The Birth of a Nation is an interesting, but very long movie.  It is silent, except for music playing, and it is sort of in black and white.  While most of it is black and white, many scenes have a brown tint and the scenes with the Ku Klux Klan have a red color to them.   Intertitles are used so that the viewer knows what is occurring. Historically, this movie is known very well for its content.  I chose to include it in my project because I was interested in what this movie included that made it so important to many people.

The movie traces two families, one from the north, the Stonemans and one from the south the Camerons, through the Civil War and the Reconstruction.  It goes over how the Ku Klux Klan was formed and how the Klan saved the day.  The first segment of this movie is very long and it feels as though there is no plot.   The northern family visits their southern friends before the Civil War began.  After the Civil War started both families had sons in the war and at one point the two died together.   However, it was not until after the Civil War that the movie began to become racist.  During Reconstruction, the movie showed the African Americans and the white, northern carpetbaggers’ takeover of the South.

Most of the racism found in this movie is in the intertitles, although, later in the movie the racism can be seen in the actions themselves.  After signing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln called troops to fight. This was the “end of state sovereignty.” However, the South, after the war, liked Lincoln.  They did not like the other Northerners.  When Lincoln was killed the south felt that “our best friend is gone.”  The reason they felt this way is because Lincoln was going to treat them well throughout Reconstruction, but the other northerners were radicals.  The southerners felt that Reconstruction was going to put whites under African Americans.

During Reconstruction this movie showed the life of African Americans.  Africans got everything they needed for free from the Freedman’s Bureau.   Also, when it came time to vote, only African Americans were allowed to vote.  It appeared that whites were denied the right to vote as African Americans kept slipping in their ballots.  Since so many African Americans voted they voted for the people who were going to support them, there were many new people in government.  In the South Carolina Congress it showed the African Americans elected taking off their shoes, eating turkey legs, drinking alcoholic beverages during floor sessions, while the whites, which were shown as a vast minority, taking everything seriously.  With their overwhelming majority the African Americans took over.  They voted to make it a law for Whites to salute Negro officers.  Basically, the point was to show them overtaking everything.  Even a northern mulatto carpetbagger, Lynch, won the election for governor.

The Ku Klux Klan idea originated when a white man went to the river to mourn the degradation of his people and saw children.  There were two white children being chased by African American children. The white children hid under a white sheet and looked like a large ghost.  The African American children were afraid of this and ran away.  Thus, the idea for the white costumes began. “The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation... until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country.” This is one of the intertitles.

An interesting point is that the only African Americans who were shown with any regard were the ones who stayed in Servitude with their former masters; they were called the “faithful souls” in the movie.  The African Americans who exercised their freedoms were portrayed as wild, lacking any manners, and basically greedy people.  All of the African Americans portrayed in this movie were actually white people in black makeup, which is known as black-face.

After the Ku Klux Klan is formed it is shown that the African Americans where the ones who initiated violence, not the Klan.  Gus, a free African American, wants to marry this white girl.  She takes off running and he chases her because he wants to talk with her.  She climbs to the top of a rock and he follows, instead of listening to him she jumps to her death.  This is what mobilizes the Klan.  They want to find Gus to give him a “fair trial”. When they catch him, he receives the Klan’s version of a trial; he is found guilty and sentenced to death.   The body is dumped on the Governor’s doorstep.  The governor sees this as a sign of war and he mobilizes the African Americans.

A war is wagged. The governor wants to punish the Camerons, the white Southerner family, so the father is arrested, paraded before his former slaves and gawked at by the new regime.  His servants or “faithful souls” come to his rescue and they run to a shack. Inside are white former Union soldiers.  However, for the “common defense of their Aryan Brotherhood”, the soldiers allow him to stay there and they fight for him.

Back in town, the governor is trying to force Elsie, the daughter of Mr. Stoneman, into marrying him.  She says no and he tries to force her to marry him.  After they fight, he ties her up and is about ready to force the marriage.  She looks outside to call for help, but African Americans have taken over and the whites on the street are helpless.  Finally, the Klan comes in and saves the day.  They save Elsie and they get all the African Americans out of the street.  The Klan then goes to the house where the Camerons are hiding. At the house the Klan chases away all of the African Americans who are trying to break down the door and kill the Camerons.

The end of the movie features the parade of clansmen because the Klan saved the day.  It is election time again and with the Klan there the African Americans do not get to vote.  The final scene shows whites in heaven with Jesus and asks the question, “Dare we dream of a golden day when the bestial War shall rule no more? But instead-the gentle Prince in the Hall of Brotherly Love in the City of Peace."

This movie was so important to the time period.  Some of Woodrow Wilson’s quotes are featured in the movie and he was President at the time when it came out.  Also, it was the first movie shown in the White House.  President Wilson said, “The film presented a truthful depiction of Reconstruction era.” (5 Steps to a 5)  I believe that it goes to show the mindset of a large portion of the population during this time.