Griffith Masterworks (The Birth of a Nation / Intolerance / Broken Blossoms / Orphans of the Storm / Biograph Shorts 1909-1913)
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DVD details
Actor: D.W. Griffith, Lilian GishBrand: Kino International
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; Japanese (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, Box set, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Silent
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 986 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-12-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 2702
Studio: Kino Video
Product features:
- GRIFFITH MASTERWORKS DVD BOX SET (DVD MOVIE)
DVD Reviews of Griffith Masterworks (The Birth of a Nation / Intolerance / Broken Blossoms / Orphans of the Storm / Biograph Shorts 1909-1913)
DVD Review: Art for Hate's Sake
Summary: 1 Stars
Why do those who rave about Griffith's cinematography never seem to notice that it was all in the service of racism, Southern sectional mythology, and American exceptionalism? The Birth of a Nation is a pernicious slander on the ex-slaves and the brave few from the north who tried (and failed) to reconstruct the South. Had they succeeded, we wouldn't be lost in the Bushes now. Art MUST be judged on its message as well as its manners. I notice, by the way, that even Disney has shown some signs of shame over the studio's unabashed racism of yesteryear; The Song of the South (Uncle Remus tales) is NOT available. I'm not urging censorship of Griffith, nor of Gone With The Wind and other pernicious propaganda films, any more than repression of Leni Reifenstahl's Triumph of the Will. I merely want the next generation of film critics to be appropriately aghast.
Postscript: It's amazing how much antagonism this little review has stirred up. I've been called names, accused of obsessions, etc. Don't bother to read the comments unless you relish ugly and rude confrontations. But I need to expand my and clarify my position about Birth of a Nation.
First of all, its ugly racism can't just be ignored for the sale of some imagined paramount influence on the history of the cinema. Griffith was extremely influential, but to claim that the cinema wouldn't have developed without him is pure nonsense; put the ingredients of life in the right environment and evolution will occur. On the other hand, without its racism, Birth of a Nation has no story. No 'drama' or energy. The film doesn't exist without its content, and that content is vile.
Second, Birth of a Nation is a film about history. What the camera angles, it is a film which expresses an 'angle' on American history, and one of the most significant eras of that history, the thwarting of Reconstruction, the fatal "Redemption" of Southern apartheid by violence and intimidation of the former slaves. This is a film about America's greatest shame, and it lies. Without the 'history', once again, there is no story. No film. The extremely radical distortions of history are the film. Suppose someone today made a film about Cambodia glorifying Pol Pot and his Killing Fields, but with brilliant special effects and editing; would anyone expect the 'audience' to dismiss the content of such a film?
In fact, I strongly suspect that the content of this film is the true reason for its enduring 'popularity'. Without its explicit racism and its mythification of the South, it would be forgotten and perhaps lost in the archives. If anyone takes its title seriously, then it depicts the Birth of a nation that would have better been stillborn.
More Griffith Masterworks (The Birth of a Nation / Intolerance / Broken Blossoms / Orphans of the Storm / Biograph Shorts 1909-1913) reviews:
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Description of Griffith Masterworks (The Birth of a Nation / Intolerance / Broken Blossoms / Orphans of the Storm / Biograph Shorts 1909-1913)
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