The Birth of a Nation & The Civil War Films of D.W. Griffith
by D.W. Griffith
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Actor: Blanche Sweet, Charles West, Henry B. Walthall, Lillian Gish, Mae MarshDirector: D.W. Griffith
Brand: Kino International
Producer: D.W. Griffith
Writer: D.W. Griffith
Writer: Emmett C. Hall
Writer: Frank E. Woods
Writer: J. McDonagh
Writer: Stanner E.V. Taylor
Writer: Thomas F. Dixon Jr.
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Unknown; Japanese (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Silent
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 187 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-12-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 2662
Studio: Kino Video
Product features:
- BIRTH OF A NATION, THE (DVD MOVIE)
DVD Reviews of The Birth of a Nation & The Civil War Films of D.W. Griffith
DVD Review: Watch for the Early Match Cuts from This Pioneer Filmmaker
Summary: 4 Stars
Here are a few thoughts on three of the Civil War Shorts in this package.
"Swords and Hearts" is the last and the best of the seven Civil War shorts Griffith directed over this three-year period. This group nicely illustrates his tracking along a very steep learning curve as he becomes ever more technically and creatively proficient with the new art form of film-making. "Swords and Hearts" is billed as a wartime story in old Virginia and entertainingly alternates between domestic and battle sequences.
The chapter captions pretty much tell the story: 1. Hugh Frazier (Wilfred Lucas) son of a wealthy tobacco planter 2. His neighbor-Irene Lambert (Claire McDowell) beautiful but calculating 3. Jennie Baker (Dorothy West) and her father (Francis J. Grandon) of the "poor white class" 4. Promise me you will be mine 5. To join his company in the confederate army 6. We shall marry when you return 7. Months later, unknown to Hugh, Jennie's chance to prove her love 8. To steal a visit with Irene 9. Old Ben (William J. Butler) anticipates the bushwhackers' attack 10. Defeated in war, rejected in love 11. Hugh realizes her loyalty and worth.
The story incorporates Griffith's favorite themes, the superior virtues of the poor whites and the loyalty of the Negro slaves to their masters. It is quite ambitious as at times Griffith cross-cuts between three different events occurring simultaneously. Unfortunately the use of white actors in black-face in several scenes is disconcerting.
Dorothy West was arguably the most contemporary looking and natural of all the silent film stars. Consequently her films from 1910-1917 have held up better even than stuff made years later at the end of the silent film era. West combines the seemingly contradictory qualities of adolescent femininity that fascinated Griffith; a virginal unworldliness and a plucky practicality. In the film's best action sequence Jennie demonstrates her practicality by taking Hugh's uniform and horse, then leading the Yankee cavalry away from her love (during his liaison with Irene). An accomplished rider, West does her own stunts and even shoots a Yankee from horseback.
"In the Border States" is another of Griffith's Civil War shorts. Although filmed in the wilds of New Jersey (Delaware Water Gap), from the title the likely intended setting is western Maryland, West Virginia, or eastern Kentucky. A border state would have sent units to both armies but this short features the home of a departing union soldier.
Shortly after he leaves with his regiment an unarmed Condederate arrives at the soldier's house and his youngest daughter (played by Gladys Egan-Mary Pickford has a smaller part as the older daughter) hides him from a Yankee patrol. He tries to kiss her in appreciation but the little girl is too patriotic to allow this. A few days later her wounded father stumbles home pursued by a Confederate patrol. The Confederate she saved is detailed to search the house and he returns the favor by not turning in her father. The little girl again refuses his kiss but they compromise and salute each other.
This is a cute little home front story in the standard silent film style of acting, much more like stage acting than acting for the camera. Some of the scenes are captioned but it is largely unnecessary because you can follow the pantomime without any trouble. Griffith inserts a couple of then revolutionary edits (match cuts) into the film, as actors are going though a door and then coming into the room on the other side. Watch for one of the first continuity problems ever, as a solder with two chevrons on his sleeves goes into the house and in the cut to him from inside he is wearing a uniform with no chevrons.
Griffith manages to incorporate some nice scenery into a couple exterior shots that are staged to take advantage of the scenic background.
"The Fugitive" is a surprisingly moving D.W. Griffith Civil War short with a focus on the home front. Two sons named John (one from a Union family and one from a Confederate family) go off to war leaving behind their mothers and fianc?es. Their respective foraging parties encounter each other and exchange fire, and the Union party runs into the woods near the home of the Confederate John. During the pursuit the two Johns fire on each other and Confederate John is killed. Union John (Edwin August) seeks shelter in a nearby house and persuades the mother (Kate Bruce) of the soldier he just killed to hide him. She continues to conceal him even after learning that he killed her son, basically to spare his mother the grief that she is experiencing.
Griffith shorts frequently emphasized this "brother against brother" theme of the war, probably because he came from the border state of Kentucky which furnished units to both armies.
Note that the confederate home has a portrait of George Washington on display. Also note the almost contemporary look and manner of Dorothy West (who plays the finance of the Confederate soldier), she looks and acts little different than a typical 2006 high school girl with acting aspirations.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Description of The Birth of a Nation & The Civil War Films of D.W. Griffith
The epic story of two families one northern & one southern during & after the civil war. Studio: Kino International Release Date: 12/10/2002 Starring: Henry B. Walthall Mae Marsh Run time: 187 minutes Director: D.w. GriffithA pivotal moment in film history. After The Birth of a Nation, nothing was the same: not the way audiences watched movies, not the way filmmakers created them. D.W. Griffith's jumbo-size saga of the Civil War expanded the boundaries of storytelling on the screen, conveying a richer, more complicated (and certainly longer) tale than anyone had seen in a movie before. The delicate relationships, the sad passage of time, the spectacular battle scenes all look as fresh and innovative today as they did in 1915. So do Griffith's brilliant actors, most of them--including favorite leading lady Lillian Gish--drawn from his regular stock company. What has become increasingly problematic about The Birth of a Nation is Griffith's condescending attitude toward black slaves, and the ringing excitement surrounding the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith, whose political ideas were naive at best, seemed genuinely surprised by the criticism of his masterwork, and for his next project he turned to the humanist preaching of the massive Intolerance. Despite protests, Birth sold more tickets than any other movie, a record that stood for decades, and President Woodrow Wilson famously compared it to "history written in lightning." That judgment has lasted. --Robert Horton
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