As Paul Polgar explains in “Fighting Lightning with Fire: Black Boston’s Battle Against The Birth of a Nation,” the film was the target of a “comprehensive national movement” characterized by protest, censorship attempts, and even a full-blown riot. In fact, its popularity was offset by horror for some-horror that the most groundbreaking film of its time was at once seductively watchable and virulently racist. The New York American described it as a film that hit its viewers with the emotional and intellectual “ force of a whirlwind.”īut not everyone was thrilled by the film. Others were just as enthusiastic: the New York Globe called The Birth of a Nation “beyond doubt the most extraordinary picture that has been seen” or made in America so far. “A great epoch in picture making,” crowed Variety. Wilson wasn’t the only critic enraptured by Griffith’s masterpiece. “It is like writing history with lightning-and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true,” President Wilson is supposed to have said after a private viewing. Even the film’s length (a whopping 12 reels, two times longer than the average movie of its day at just over three hours) challenges and stirs its audiences. Detailed reenactments thrust viewers into the world of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Revolutionary camera work ratchets up the tension. In it, action-packed battles alternate with poignant love scenes. Griffith’s epic film attracted long lines of excited would-be viewers. We can’t hear what’s going on- The Birth of a Nation is a silent film-but the scene is identified as: “AN HISTORICAL FACSIMILE of the State House of Representatives of South Carolina as it was in 1870.” A pseudohistorical spectacle so compelling that it commanded an entire average day’s wages as admission, D. Representatives cheer, dance, and eat fried chicken as they pass a bill permitting the intermarriage of blacks and whites. Another makes a motion: shall all white people salute black officers in the street? The men raise their fists in heated support. One man takes off his boot, resting his foot on the desk, but replaces it when he is told that all legislators must wear shoes. They mill and laugh and talk among themselves. One takes a swig from a bottle with a gesture as obvious as a stage whisper. They conduct their business with the decorum of a pack of wolves. In one scene, a room filled with empty desks flickers, and then, thanks to a bit of movie magic, fills with black men who’ve been elected to the state legislature. It’s just as shocking now as it was then. The Birth of a Nation-1915’s blockbuster hit and the most popular movie of its day-was released 100 years ago this month.
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