1001 movies - You must see before you die
The Birth of a Nation
- D.W.Griffith, 1915Simultaneously one of the most revered and most revilea films ever made, D.W.Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is important for the very reasons that prompt both of those divergent reactions. In fact, rarely has a film so eually deserved such praise and scorn, which in many ways raises the film's estimation no just in the annals of cinema but as an essential historic artifact (some might say relic)
- "It is the biggest thing I have undertaken, but I shall not be satisfied until do something else... I am, like all other human beings, aiming at perfection." - D.W.Griffith, 1915
The Birth of a Nation is no doubt a powerful piece of propaganda, albeit one with a stomach-chyrning political message. Only the puritanical Ku Klux Klan cna maintain the unity of the nation, it seems to be saying,so is it any wonder that even at the time the film was met with outrage? It was protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), soarked riots, and later forced Griffith himself to answer criticisms with his even more ambitious Intolerance (1916). Still, the fact that The Birth of a Nation remains respected and studied to this day -despite its subject matter- reveals its lasting importance.